I’ve just discovered Netduino today while looking for a C# way to code Arduino and ATMega boards, hoping to find where someone built a cross-language compiler from C# to AVR… but ran across Wilderness Labs instead. I’ve found Netduino very interesting, being a C# developer since the pre-beta versions back in 2001. I hoping I can ask a few questions here before digging in any deeper, as I’m trying to fill a unique niche.
I’ve been working on a side business developing curriculum for electronics, robotics, digital logic, and I’ve been trying to pick a microcontroller to use. I’ve looked at a lot of them that have been focused towards education and have a stack of probably 30 that include Parallax, Arduino (clones, compatibles, derived and a few homemade boards), Basic Stamps, Propellers, and a Raspberry PI. Each have issues with what I am trying to do and do not fit my needs very well. But at first glance, Netdunio looks to solve many of these issues. So, I wanted to post a few questions that I have not been able to resolve looking through the website.
One of the advantages of microcontrollers like say ATMega, PIC, and others, is that you can work on development boards or prototyping setups and then use just the chip in your final product. So say you use Arduino as your development board, you’d buy a $2 ATMega chip to build your final product. You wouldn’t use the Arduino prototyping board and solder it in to your final product. Well, you can, but in an engineering process you’d work through your designs and then build a final PCB with the microcontroller and take that to market. Can you work through a process like this with Netduino? Can I prototype on the Netduino and then build a PCB that I can take to market? Or is Netduino more of a single board per project approach or more focused on learning? It is based on ARM, so I think you can work through this sort of approach, right?
Just curious if anyone thinks Netduino would be a good fit for what I am doing and trying to teach. Or maybe I would be repeating much of what Wilderness Labs is already doing? So, I might be stepping on toes here? That is not my intent, I am just looking for a good board and platform to use for my curriculum. It sounds like Netduino might be a good fit.
Any feedback or suggestions would be much appreciated.
Best regards,
Jon Rothlander