IOT

Top 5 Development Boards in 2020

IoT boards, also known as development boards or prototyping boards, are hardware platforms used to generate prototypes of manufacturers’ ideas. Microcontroller-based boards, single-board computers (SBC), and even cellular-enabled IoT boards are among the possibilities available. 

Are you confused on which development board to use? So, this year (2020), I’m going to show you the greatest development boards you can acquire for your college projects, industrial projects, and DIY projects at home. The top 5 development boards in 2020, such as STM32, BeagleBone, Raspberry Pi, Arduino and NodeMCU, are covered in this article.

What Is a Development Board? 

The development board is a printed circuit board that contains a number of hardware components such as a central processor unit, memory, input device, output device, data path/bus, and external resource interface for embedded system development.

Embedded system developers usually customise development boards to meet their specific demands. Developers can also conduct their own study and design of a development board. Beginners can use the development board to learn about the system’s hardware and software. Some development boards have a basic integrated development environment, as well as software source code and hardware schematics. 51, ARM, FPGA, and DSP development boards are all common development boards.

Development boards are made for learning purposes mostly and can also be used in industrial applications as well. In this vast community of electronics there are many custom development boards also available. They are also used for prototyping before releasing the main product. They have been also used for testing and debugging purposes.

  1. NodeMCU

The growth of the ESP8266 led to the development of the NodeMCU board, which has been quite popular since last year. It consists of a WiFi chip which can connect to your network and you can manage many tasks with just simple operations. It’s similar to an Arduino in that it has a lot of digital pins but no analogue pins (comes with only one analogue pin). You can use a mux to use numerous analogue sensors if you plan on using them. Aside from that, this board allows you a lot of flexibility when it comes to controlling sensors and other devices that are linked to the board via WiFi.

2.Arduino

Arduino is an open-source electronic device that reads inputs (such as light on a sensor, finger on a button, or a Twitter tweet) and creates output based on these inputs (such as turning on an LED or activating a motor). Arduino was created at Ivrea Interaction Design Institute as a simple tool for students with no prior experience with electronics or programming. After gaining popularity, it began to evolve in order to meet new requirements and obstacles. Because of its simple and easy-to-use user interface, it has enabled a wide range of applications, from ordinary products to complicated scientific apparatus.\

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Arduino boards are microcontrollers rather than entire computers with their own operating system, such as the Raspberry Pi. They just run C/C++ programmes contained in their firmware. The Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a free and open-source software that allows you to create code and upload it to an Audrino board.

Arduino has the advantage of being open-source, which means that numerous design files and source code are already available. You may choose any of them or improve on them to create your own Arduino board.

3.Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi

A small, fully working computer that may be connected to a computer display, keyboard, and mouse. It has all of the characteristics of a PC, including a dedicated processor, memory, and a graphics driver. It also comes with its own operating system, Raspberry Pi OS, which is an improved version of Linux.

The Raspberry Pi does not come with storage, but you may use microSD cards to store whichever operating system (Raspberry Pi, Ubuntu Mate, etc.) you like. Because the Raspberry Pi has Bluetooth, ethernet, and WiFi connection, it may also be used to send data over the internet. The Raspberry Pi project and its software are not open-source.

Because a Raspberry Pi board contains a whole computer within a Printed Circuit Board, it is commonly referred to as a Single Board Computer, or SBC. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is constantly upgrading and improving it. Since its introduction, it has proven to be a popular choice for use in robotics, weather monitoring, IoT, and a variety of other electronic systems.

4. Beagle Bone:

It’s possible that you haven’t even heard of this message board.

The BeagleBone Black is quite easy to set up, whereas the Raspberry Pi can rapidly become difficult. This, combined with the BeagleBone Black’s 65 input and output pins and ridiculously large number of compatible interfaces, makes the BeagleBone Black the obvious choice for projects that interact with electronics more directly and in a more complicated way. Reading from external sensors, directing actuators (such as motors or light systems), and networking are all made easier and more efficient on the BeagleBone Black.

The Beaglebone Black features a 1GHz ARM-based processor, 512MB of RAM, and 2GB of onboard storage that can be expanded via a MicroSD slot. In practise, this is sufficient to run a Linux operating system, as well as a web browser and other desktop apps, however performance is limited. Don’t expect it to replace your primary computer, but it may be a useful tool for complex projects and an excellent method to learn about Linux-based operating systems.

The Beaglebone Black can be used as a small, standalone Linux computer, but the hardware is intended to be used as an embedded system—a computer embedded within a larger electronics project. The two rows of GPIO (general purpose Input/Output) pins located on either side of the board are the most obvious evidence of this. These pins enable the Beaglebone Black to interface with a variety of sensors, servos, outputs, and other hardware, allowing it to function as the brain of a huge, complex project.

5.STM32

STM32F407 Discovery Board designed as a development board that is similar to Arduino in terms of advanced capabilities and accessibility. The STM32F407 Discovery Board enables the development of high-reliability applications by utilising an advanced performance microcontroller known as the Arm Cortex-M4 32-bit core. I’m assuming you’re familiar with the ARM Architecture. It provides versatility and customization, allowing you to experiment with libraries, communication protocols, GPIO pins, and so on.

They include the components required to showcase certain device functionalities, such as MEMS microphones, sensors, and LCD screens. The exploration kits are suitable for prototyping since they include a HAL library, several software samples, and an integrated debugger/programmer.

Hope this blog helps you to understand Top 5 Development Boards used in Electronics projects.We ,MATHA ELECTRONICS  will come back with more informative blogs.

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