Arduino VS Netduino

What's up all?

I want to start getting into robotics and MCU programming as a hobby. I have experience with programming and basic electonics as I went to school for Computer Engineering. I want to keep those skills sharp and do this kind of stuff during my free time since my current job doesn't exactly require any of them lol.

I was looking at using either the Arduino or the Netduino to start out. I'm not sure which one I should go with. Arduino seems to be incredibly popular, but I have a lot more experience using C#.

Through the minimal amount of research I've done I've noticed that a lot of the Arduino shields and modules work with the Netduino; but often times they require some extra work to get them to work correctly.

After completing some introductory projects i want to start building a walking robot that can follow a laser and maybe even shoot some sort of projectile (like a marble) in the direction of the laser. **EDIT** And eventually a Quadcopter (Don't know if that will even really matter in the selection between them but I figured I'd let you all know that anyway)

Which one is better in your opinion?

The Arduino uses Wiring which is an implementation of Processing which is Java, if you're comfortable with object oriented programming there's not much to learn except syntax. The NetDuino just changes the development language to C#, if that works for you then fine but you'll lose a massive network of support as far as program debugging and tips goes for Arduino native projects.

Unless there is some truly driving need for your to use C# then I'd recommend Arduino, neither platform is inherently better which is why you'd chose the Arduino, with nothing being better or worse it's a matter of taste and with the support for Arduino directly you'd need a REALLY good reason to use the .net framework.

I can't think of one advantage the Netduino project has over Arduino, and the lack of community support as strong as the Arduino has is a big tipping of the hat in it's favor.

The code is in C++

C/C++. It links against AVR Libc and allows the use of any of its functions; see its user manual for detail

Click to expand...

and Visual C# for the Netduino

Thanks for the help. I think I've decided to go with Arduino. Sceadwian, you made a good point about the support. The community is so much larger I think I'd have a better chance of finding help when I need it.

I'll probably buy a netduino eventually, but I'll buy the Sparkfun electronics Arduino inventor's kit to start with.

I chose the rebel route myself when I started electronics, but it was a different situation, I chose AVR micro controllers over PIC even though PIC had a huge following and was an industry standard. I chose AVR because it was a relatively new product line with more standardized simplified but still had a very good community support base that was dramatically increasing.

I'm glad I went the AVR route, which supports either route you take as the Arduino system is based on AVR micro controllers (though there have been some recent atempts to make PIC version of the Arduino because of it's popularity)

I hope AVR gets a little bit more market share myself, not necessarily because it's simply better or for any technical reasons, but competition is ALWAYS good!