“I have an earlier Raspberry Pi (B model) and an Arduino 2560 and have not fully understood their different capacities. The Arduino is a “micro controller” and the Pi basically a mini computer, but there is considerable overlap”
There are a lot of people who are using these things (pretty expensive) when a $1.00 microcontroller like a PIC from Microchip will do. They are harder to program but at least you learn some engineering. I’m stone age and still use through-hole parts, but the only difference is my stuff is a little larger.
Thanks Antiyuppie for the reference to PIC microcontrollers. Studying up on them now. This is a significantly cheaper option.
Through-hole stuff is a bit stone-age but I still enjoy playing with it even if the results are oversize.
You can get a descent hot-air rework station for less than 100 bux these days though... makes surface mount pretty easy.