Arduino vs Pico - Which is the Best Microcontroller For You?

Two of the most popular microcontrollers are the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi Pico. There are quite a lot of similarities, but also some important differences. Which is the best one for your project? Let me explain!



#garyexplains

[devindykstra]

Arduino and Raspberry Pi Foundation are also such great companies. The fact that Arduino is open source and that they fully support alternative manufacturers is absolutely unheard of in other industries.

[JohnnieHougaardNielsen]

As I prefer having Wifi available, I tend to select ESP32 (or even ESP8266) instead. They can also be programmed via the Arduino IDE or MicroPython.

[kebien]

Arduino does use actual C++ with gcc under the hood. It just does some pre-processing to create a proper C++ file (concatenates .ino and .pde files, generates function prototypes, sticks #include <Arduino.h> at the beginning, etc). But you can use all of the features, like constexpr, templates, lambdas, auto, SFINAE black magic, etc.

[mrcalico]

You're an awesome communicator Gary, informative, articulate with a perfect amount of sincere carsima. I totally look forward to exploring the rest of your channel's videos.

[stompreaper]

Firstly, great job on consolidating all the info on this topic. Very well summarized and presented.

Which board would I pick - well I’ve been doing embedded projects for years and am not afraid on getting closer to the chip with tooling etc. so for me, it’s a clear win to get the pico. For someone new trying out physical computing for the first time I would still start arduino uno because there are hundreds of thousands of projects with pictures/blogs/git repos etc. and if you need to learn something it’s just one google away. Circuit python is gaining traction especially with backing from amazing people like Adafruit but the body of code that Arduino tradition has is just unmatched right now.

Once your degree of sophistication with tooling increases you just outgrow the atmega328p and start into ARM Cortex.

[lahmyaj]

Really liked this video Gary 👍🏻

Only thing I feel was missing was maybe a comparison of the IO in detail.

Maybe that’s best left to a follow up video that breaks down some of these key comparisons.

Also, I’d love to see you do a microcontroller history video!

I personally have yet to get back into (actually physically doing) one of my favourite hobbies when I was younger and that was electronics and reading about digital electronics and microcontrollers.

I’m in Australia and I used to read a magazine called Silicon Chip that featured a series on PICAXE microcontrollers from the UK (you’ve probably heard of them).

I bought some and started getting into programming etc. but after I packing up to move house in the mid-2000’s, I have yet to break it out all again and get back into it.

I now have a RPi 4 8GB but yet to do anything with it other than get it running RPi OS, so keen to get back into it all but I just feel like I’m missing so much from mid-2000’s to late 2010’s that I’d sorta like to get a handle on the developments since the time of PIC microcontrollers and maybe a bit about the languages/IDEs.

Lol just a small request ☺️👍🏻

[andakar]

Great video! Thank you Gary this is well explained. I’ve used arduino for years for art projects and have struggled to understand the differences among them. Your video was the most clear and succinct explanation I’ve come across. I’ve subscribed to your channel and look forward to more!

[ryanjanz]

Great Video!! I've been using Arduino for the 5 years but have kept my Eye on Raspberry Pi. Most of my projects can be done with a Nano however some of the not complicated projects that require multiple I/O are tough to design due to limited or over lapping pins for different protocols. The Pico with multiple SPI busses and I2C support will solve that nicely. I'm also thrilled that it can be programmed from the Arduino IDE. I will be strongly considering the Pico but I don't think I'll get rid of my Nanos though. My number one complaint is the 3.3v logic level voltage needed. The Nano shines with its onboard regulator

[michaelgrouse]

Thanks this helped serve as a starting map of the space. Now to look at your other videos to see if I can fin out more!

[Dorff_Meister]

My primary reason for selecting a Nano would be it's 5V (with reasonably good GPIO selection). For 3.3v, I often default to an ESP32 these days, but if I don't need Wifi and 3.3V is fine, the Pico looks like a fine choice whenever I need loads of GPI and the dual i2c buses certainly nice.

[Alan_UK]

Very informative. A year ago I designed and built my own Energy Management System based on a Rasp Pi Zero with Python but I wanted to interface to a micro-controller to read pulse outputs from 3 electricity meters (PV generation, Consumption & Purchase). I was going to use IC2 for the Pi to request the pulse counts every x mins. My first choice was the Pico as I could use Micro Python but found that Micro Python does not support the Pico as a client. I found a web comment from the developers that it was too complicated and unreliable.

So I switched to a Arduino Nano Every and found the IC2 client library and the IC2 general support was very good and I soon had written the client code; all interrupt based.

One issue was the Nano is a 5V board so a 3V3 to 5V logical level converter was needed on the IC2 interface, plus a 5V supply was needed. Another issue is that I could not get the Arduino IDE to run on a Windows 10 PC with a usb connection so had to use the web IDE. Finally, I burnt out one Nano when it was connected to a 5V supply via the 5V pin and the usb socket at the same time.

[Togidubnus]

I was not aware of the Pico until I watched this. I've put together several projects using Arduino, but I've got to say that anything that properly uses interrupts and not the clunky void loop() will come as a breath of fresh air. And using the full C++ compiler and error checking can only be a good thing too. Still, a Pico can be bought for pocket money, so I'm going to be giving it a go.

[utkarshkothimbire]

Thanks a lot for making this video and explaining crisply. All the efforts from you for making these videos are making our life easier for learning.

[doop]

I think for beginners Arduino is definitely the one to go for because of all the educational resources and tooling available. Once you become more experienced then Pico is a viable alternative for projects, and perhaps preferred for cost and obtaining control over low-level details.

[acidutzu]

Between Arduino and Pico, ESP32 is the best!

[SchwaAlien]

I had made use of the Arduino nano clone board to run a matrix of LEDs controlled by Glediator, there were some serious limitations (512 total) from it being an 8bit processor, eventually I would like to try to build a large custom LED display that would probably work WAY better with the pico, given there’s enough software support to make it work...

[benarcher]

PIO would be interesting! And thank you so much for all your videos over the years!

[kioshiki]

Thanks for the great content. I've got classic Arduino boards and a couple Pi Pico boards, I might be more tempted by the Pico and other RP2040 based boards, I like the idea of dabbling with the lower level stuff for the fun of it but also having the MicroPython for easier coding too.

[nimrodlevy]

I love the pico so much, I've built megaman blaster for my son its soooo easy to program and so much fun! I also built simon game with it sooo easy go and buy one. And i bought it on Amazon in original price, i recommend it for anyone who whats to tinker with electronics. Note, learning python is much easier than c and c like languages

[mrwang]

Which one of these would you suggest for using with a Militech Optical Zoom/Scanner eye implant?