# Arduino or Raspberry Pi, or both



## cfurnari (Aug 2, 2020)

So, someone put a bug in my ear to use Arduino or Raspberry Pi to control different things on the layout (signals, crossings, and other items). Does anyone use either of them? could Raspberry Pi be used as a way to talk to Arduino controllers?


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

I use a RaspberryPI (running Octoprint) that talks to an Arduino that is connoted to Power ion pin of a PC power supply and that controls a RGB light that is run via an encoder switch. So yes they can communicate. I think there is a 3.3 v to 5 v logic converter in the mix. It all lets me run the 3D printer remotely. As fare as controlling signals, just using an Arduino may be all the computing power you need!


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## cfurnari (Aug 2, 2020)

thanks


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## gregc (Apr 25, 2015)

while i have professional experience developing embedded code on linux, i have no experience doing hobby projects on a Pi. i don't know what the development environment is nor the interfaces to hardware. (i'd be curious to hear from others what they are)

the Arduino integrated development environment (IDE) is very straight forward and targeted for embedded applications. since there is just on program running on arduino, there is no OS interference, not need to understand linux. i believe a Pi is ~$40 and an Arduino ~$10.

if there's an need for Wifi/Bluetooth, an esp32 is an alternative and can use the same Arduino IDE and also ~$10

however, a Pi could serve as a centralized controlled for a C/MRI network of nodes on a layout with a wiFI interface to a GUI running on a laptop or use remotely using VNC


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