Most popular and trendy boards for makers? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: wwwill
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 09, 2021, 09:02:01 am
content: Hello everyone,I have been asked which boards are the most popular / sold / trendy amongst makers.Do you know if and how to find some figures?MCU dev boards and SBC are fine.My gut feeling is:Arduino UnoRapsberry Pi (all versions)Raspberry Pico (for the trend)Maybe Adafruit Feather (all versions) ?Maybe Rasperry Pi Zero (all versions)?Anything else? ST Bluepill?Thank you very much

author: AmnevaR
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 09, 2021, 10:39:10 am
content: You need to follow the money and see what sells. Like Amazon best sellers page (https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories-Single-Board/zgbs/pc/17441247011)or Aliexpress section of Electronic Components & Supplies and sort by Orders (https://www.aliexpress.com/category/502/electronic-components-supplies.html?trafficChannel=main&catName=electronic-components-supplies&CatId=502&ltype=wholesale&SortType=total_tranpro_desc&groupsort=1&page=1)

author: Austin Gosling
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 09, 2021, 11:26:38 am
content: I really like the ESP32-S2, mainly because it has Wifi.

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 09, 2021, 11:36:26 am
content: Quote from: wwwill on April 09, 2021, 09:02:01 amI wouldloveto know the background for being interested in the answer to that question.You see, I do not believe the answer to the stated question is the correct answer to the underlying unstated question (of which I can think of several different ones), because the popularity and trends have a historical basis.For example, if one wants to enter the same market, copying the market leader is not a commercially viable approach.If one wants to teach youngsters to tinker, choosing the device based on popularity or market share instead of fitness for purpose is just idiotic. (Literally, like eating human excrement, because after all, billions of flies cannot be wrong.)If one represents a large nonprofit organization intending to inject lots of funds with the intent of helping say tech development in developing countries, then one should start working at thelocallevel, looking for existing local organizations to fund; because funding the already most popular device or platform will have very little impact on anywhere (except to people who get their salaries from companies producing that exact product).If it is just idle curiosity, nevermind.

author: wwwill
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 10, 2021, 04:16:15 am
content: Quote from: AmnevaR on April 09, 2021, 10:39:10 amThank you, that was kinda were I was going as well.I hoped for maybe some more "official" figures.I found the numbers for Raspberry Pi, 30 millions at December 2019 + record sales in March 2020 at 640,000 piecesSo probably close to 40 millions by now.Quote from: Nominal Animal on April 09, 2021, 11:36:26 amThe idea is for the company to know which boards to make a shield / hat for, in order to integrate one of their components.Sorry, I can't tell much more than that

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2021, 05:17:57 am
content: I thought the question was to weed out job applications from people who don't know the real embedded stuff.

author: Renate
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2021, 12:54:24 pm
content: Quote from: blueskull on April 10, 2021, 05:36:47 amYeah, the Pi Zero W is neither here nor there, but there are some use cases.Being cheap and having HDMI, full graphics, WiFi and Bluetooth makes it useful for digital signage.

author: phil from seattle
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2021, 03:29:40 pm
content: So, if you are setting strategy for a company, historical trends are not likely to be that helpful. Kind of like driving forward by using the rear view mirror. I would look at the trailing 12 months much more closely but get a handle on what is exciting "early mover" makers right now. Someone who has an RPi sitting in a project or a drawer is not necessarily going to buy a hat for it. The guy buying a new RPi today might but then might just be buying a Pico or a Teensy or a Feather instead. If you had a related product available when the Pico was announced you probably would have sold a large pile of them.

author: AmnevaR
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2021, 03:46:00 pm
content: Quote from: amyk on April 10, 2021, 05:17:57 amIn my country Raspberry Pi is overpriced. Frequently the price is not far off from Nvidia Jetson nano 2Gb

author: Renate
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2021, 04:37:36 pm
content: In the US,MicroCenterwas selling RPi Zero W for $5.There was a limit of one per customer, in-store only.It's gone to $10 now.In any case, for awhile I just bought one every time I walked into the store so I have a fistful now.

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2021, 04:56:19 pm
content: Quote from: wwwill on April 09, 2021, 09:02:01 amOh, that actually makes perfect sense– and no need to provide further details, that is quite sufficient context for this question!I would suggest trying to make the device directly usable with both 5V and 3.3V logic level boards, by using level converters like SN74LVC1T45, where each side provides their own I/O signal level voltage. (The 74LVC1T45 is unidirectional, so for SPI/GPIO/UART; for I2C, you might wish to use an I2C-compatible chip instead.)That way your device/component could work at its preferred voltage, but easily work with both 5V (AVR) and 3.3V (ARM) logic-level microcontrollers.