Today, there are many microcontrollers and boards available for DIY projects, all with their individual strengths and weaknesses. In this section you get guidance to select the right microcontroller for a given task, plus extensive information about many popular boards.
Guidance
Here is a list of reasons for when to choose a particular microcontroller board. This list is neither complete nor authoritative. If you have additional tips or suggestions, please leave a comment below.
Beginner
You are new and want to get your hands dirty and find out what a microcontroller can do.
Arduino
An Arduino Nano (or one of its Clones) might be right for you: since Arduinos are around the longest time, there is a wealth of free resources and video tutorials available. Arduinos are renown for their ease-of-use. Using Arduino IDE, you’ll be up and running in no time.
Choosing A Board
The actual type of Arduino depends on your needs (i.e. the number of devices you want to control, GPIOs):
- Arduino Uno: too old and limited
- Arduino Nano: great general purpose choice
- Arduino Every, Arduino Nano ESP32: lack compatibility, lacks ease-of-use and “just works”, requires some configuration and code adjustments. If you are after some of their special features, better pick the real thing: a ESP32 board (see below)
Caveats
While Arduinos let you quickly enjoy first successes, they are pricy and technically limited. Both the (easy-to-use) ArduinoIDE and the boards stop to be fun once you get excited and want more: memory is quickly exhausted in more sophisticated firmware, WiFi/Bluetooth connectivity is lacking, and power consumption is comparably high.
So unless you are determined to exactly follow some Arduino training videos, for beginners with a bit of basic technical understanding, get an ESP32 S2, and start by using a professional IDE like platformio rather than Arduino IDE. This sets you up in the most future-proof way.
Most example code runs equally well on ESP microcontrollers and often just requires some adjustments to the GPIO pin numbers.
The ESP32 S2 is a great and extremely powerful single-core microcontroller, is available for under EUR 2.00 (so you can buy a couple, just in case you toast one or want one to stay in a useful device you built), has plenty of memory even for the most advanced sketches, and is the last ESP32 family member that comes with useful-to-experiment features like two DACs (digital-to-analog converter).
| Microcontroller | Pro | Contra |
|---|---|---|
| Arduino Nano | Simple Start | Quick to reach limits |
| ESP32 S2 | A little more time required to get started | Cheaper, more powerful, extensible future-proof tool chain |
WiFi-Related
Any of the ESP32 will do.
High Computational Load
Classic dual-core ESP32 or even better yet, the new dual-core ESP32 S3 with advanced AI vector analysis support that runs code another 10% faster.
Low Computational Load And No Space
If you want a microcontroller to just control hardware and sensors in very space-constrained environments and with low energy consumption, then ATtiny is a good way to go.
Battery-Powered Devices
All newer ESP32 come with excellent and most efficient power-savings modes: S2, S3, C3, C6
Unix/Linux
If you intend to run full-fledged applications on a real operating system, choose Raspberry Pi
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(content created May 22, 2024)