Arduino vs Stm32| which is perfect for get started with embedded?

This article will surely open your eyes for where to starts in embedded. Is Arduino  perfect for get to start?

These days ATMEGA series controller's are widely used by hobbyist because of Arduino boards. However when we need more speed, more analog inputs, more precision, but still don't want to switch from Arduino programming, there's a elegant solution....The blue pill!.

but we can't easily eliminate Arduino from usage. Arduino is for relatively uncomplicated circuits that needs very little processing. Microcontroller based apps tend to require a lot of processing. If you wanted say system that switched on or off circuits based on specific criteria, and you need to keep costs down, Arduino is best.  

If you want to start a career (or a hobby) in firmware development, then probably you should go for STM32, as you will quickly learn and want to do some cool stuff.
If you need to make a prototype of a product, a proof of concept, then go with development kit board, which will help you reach your goals quickly.

Only if you know exactly what your application must, and you need very cheap hardware and want to distribute in large scale then go for the smallest/cheapest solution (for example a timer, thermostat, etc)

Applications that don’t require the use of advanced libraries can be efficiently implemented using an Arduino board. However, applications that do require a series of advanced manipulations will generally require something a bit more sophisticated i.e. an ARM-based platform like the STM32. Obviously, the sophisticated STM32 equipment costs more than an Arduino and is thus more versatile. However, for fairly simplistic projects, it’s a bit of an overkill.

With all that said, when it comes to making a purchase decision, beginner would start purchase with STM32, as it can be reused for more complex projects in the future. I personally think that beginners should start with an 8051 or PIC microcontroller and build their own boards (soldering individual components and stuff) instead of starting off with a commercial one. That first LED-blinking experience should be on a crude, hand-made board programmed using low-level assembly or C. Using an Arduino or any such platform only isolates the users from the hardware and isn’t fruitful academically. For advanced projects, however, building your own board isn’t really feasible, and thus an STM32 board is a better choice there.

Now let we look comparison table between STM32f103 and ATMEGA328(Arduino)

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So lets move on the Topic,

  Moreover they are very much suitable for low power application and STM has low power series which consumes the current up to nano amps in deep sleep mode.

That's it you can understand how much powerful STM32 series controller are but the problem with the people is they want everything easily like the way arduino provide, everything is readily available on web for arduino whereas working with STM32 needs a lot of patience and hard work that's why most beginner's don't use STM32.

The price also cheper than Arduino. In sri lanka, Arduino is moving around 950 rupee at the same time STM32f103 is moving around 535 rupee. 

However,STM32 Microcontrollers also have some disadvantages. I got involve into search through some community forums. There I had got some information as bellow

• It has badly written user manuals,  although it covers everything that an engineer should know, but in comparison to other vendors (Atmel, Freescale, TI, …) STM32 documentation is not that good(when you read a well written manual you can learn almost everything you should know at first read, but with STM32 there would be still some ambiguity).

 

•   Horrible driver libraries!!! I know it sounds like a mixed up statement but STM32 HAL drivers are not written in an efficient manner. Too much unnecessary abstraction and even that is not done well. I mean compare it to Atmel ASF libraries, or LPC peripheral drivers, they win with a huge margin!
  Although that is not a huge problem, you can always write your own libraries, but that undermines the whole purpose of using a vendor provided library: Faster development time.

 Check my previous tutorial about how to sent and make analysis through Google Spread sheet using ESP8266. 

And don't forget to share this post who aspires to begin in embedded. Because Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always only asking "what's in it for me?"😇