z. How does PC USB Projects compare to Arduino projects?

QUESTION:

How does PC USB Projects compare to Arduino projects?

ANSWER:

PC USB Projects offers a very powerful and low cost hardware platform and a free software platform for all relevant 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows versions and editions (XP, 2003, 7, 8, 2008, 2012, ...). PC USB Projects platform offers many extended functionalities that easily integrate into Microsoft .NET environment. It includes multithreading and natve 32-bit and 64-bit application supports. Most of the samples are provided in Visual Basic.NET. The otners are in C++.NET. However, you can easily adapt them for use with other programming languages within the .NET environment.

Each firmware version is an extension of the previous one. There are various programming examples that solve complex real-life problems like: thermostatic control, PWM signal generation, signal analysis (1 Msps modular oscilloscope and advanced A/D) , A/D and D/A conversion, I2C communication, house automation, …

PC USB Projects concept is hard compare with Arduino projects concept, because it is based on a different philosophy. Arduino projects tends to provide ready to use development boards with 32-bit Atmel microcontrollers, while PC USB Projects offers a simple yet more powerful platform that is not tied to a specific factory manufactured PCB. A powerful PIC32MX250F128B microcontroller with an inbuilt 32-bit MIPS processor has a 28-pin SDIP casing and it is easy to use on any custom PCB. Just a crystal oscillator or crystal resonator and a few capacitors and resistors have to be added to get a working chip that can directly connect to a PC USB 2.0 port. Adapter schematics for the popular Velleman Experiment boards K8055-1 and K8055N-2 are also available.

Atmel microcontrollers that are used on Arduino boards do not offer many options for integration into a custom PCB, because they are SMDs and they have hundreds of pins which are almost impossible to solder by hand without expensive specialist SMD electronics development tools and equipment.

PIC32MX250F128B on the other hand is as easy to solder as it can possibly be. It is also very cheap to buy and you can easily use more of PC32MX250F128B microcontrollers on a single PCB to get more processing power, while still keeping the power consumption low.

PC USB Projects also provides a lot of PC independent functionality, which enable PIC32MX250F128B microcontrollers to perform certain functions (like thermostatic control) regardless of the power state of the controlling PC. The only condition is that the power supply voltage is provided for the microcontroller chip during the PC is turned off. This may be achieved by an additional power supply or by setting a USB port to remain powered when the PC in a low power state. Furthermore, Arduino boards with Atmel microcontrollers are deemed to be much slower than Microchip PIC32 based solutions.

See PIC32MX250F128B programming guide for more information. All software from PC USB Projects is free.