Arduino is quite popular and most used board especially by different artists and video makers. It is cheap and easy to use, however, the only drawback attached with Arduino is that the boards offers limited computing power and also has memory issues. It cannot store a lot of information on the board. Moreover, it also lacks the built-in connectivity aspect as well, which means that you need to buy separate WIFI and Bluetooth shield in order to enhance connectivity.
Intel Edison is the latest development that is launched by the company Intel. It has advanced technical specifications but it is of a very small size. Moreover, it offers great connectivity as it has built in Bluetooth and WIFI with 40 GPIOs. Even though Intel Edison board is small in size but still it can serve the needs of any IoT application. What’s different about Intel Edison is that has made two extension boards. One board is a mini breakout board that allows easy access to 40 GPIOs and the other boards is the Arduino Board designed for Edison that allows Edison to be compatible with any shield that is designed specifically for Arduino. Intel Edison is comparatively more expensive than the Arduino.
However, there are a few advantages and disadvantages of using Arduino or Intel Edison and some of them are mentioned below:
Advantages of Arduino
- Easy to use – it is designed in a way that as soon as you access it, it is ready to use. Programmer connections for programming are not required.
- Effortless Functions – if you are in the process of debugging a file, you don’t have to worry about the unit conversion as it has an automatic unit conversion capability.
- Cheap
Disadvantages of Arduino
- Structure – Arduino has limited computing power and it also has a lot of memory issues. Large files cannot be stored easily.
- No in Built connectivity – which means that there are no WIFI or Bluetooth connectivity ports thus buying a WIFI shield adds up to the total cost of the board.
Intel Edison Advantages
In Built connectivity option to Bluetooth and WIFI devices, therefore, you can access the Internet or any other device within your reach in a limited amount of time.
It has two extension boards that allow you to make your Intel Edison compatible with any shield that is designed and compatible with any other shield of Arduino.
It has better storage as compared to Arduino, which means that large and professional files can be stored easily.
Intel Edison has a better power consumption and it only draws a fraction of the power as compared to Arduino.
Intel Edison Disadvantages
Intel Edison offers a lot of new features that are missing in Arduino, which adds up to its price. Intel Edison is quite expensive and is designed mainly for the use of professionals.
It is complicated and difficult use. Proper understanding needs to be gathered before the board is used for the intended purpose.
It also has no software control over the motor currents that often short out the drivers in the process.
All in all, both options are recommendable. In my opnion I would start with an arduino like I did. But intel edison really is endgame, the options are endless there. I will leave a link of the book I used to learn the mraa library and how to use the intel edison properly (before buying this book, note that this book requires C programming knowledge!). I will also leave a link for buying the intel edison with breakout board and for the arduino uno.
Intel Edison Breakout Board Kit [Dual Core Intel Atom IA-32 500MHz, 4GB eMMC Storage, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi Enabled]
Arduino Uno R3 Microcontroller A000066
Explore Intel Edison by Harry Fairhead (2016-07-27)
