Arduino

I found my Arduino - this is about as far as I ever got with the Arduino:

not terribly original

I don't know if it's the C language or the way that updating the Aruduino software can "break" a working compile but I just lost interest.

Has the Arduino passed it's peak ?  I'm not sure, it has spawned a whole infrastructure of little blue (or red) modules that can easily be jumpered to an Arduino (or any other kind of microcontroller).  But the prices !  Although the parcels are more likely to actually arrive in a decent amount of time, the tracked parcels that predominate ebay mean much higher prices on Arduinos and the accompanying bits.  Also, the newer, faster chips like those from STM used in the nanoVNA or tinySA are becoming popular along with the new single board computers like the Raspberry Pi.  

I didn't get on the Arduino train until late, the prices seemed kind of high at first (at least from the perspective of a kit producer).  The open source concept is very empowering to those interested in projects.  The software is free, there are many applications available to download, there is a lot of software support for the hard stuff like graphic displays or SI5351 PLL chips.  I've never tried programming the SI5351 but I remember the AD9832/5 giving me fits with PIC assembly language.

The only knock on single board computers or even Arduinos to me is the power consumption.  If there is a USB port or wall wart available then the Arduino is great, but running off a battery for years is going to be tougher.

Anyway, I do have a project that has Arduino written all over it:  a frequency display for my Yaesu FT-450d that includes the 1 Hz digit.  For some reason Yaesu has no way to display the 1 Hz digit on the front panel - the only way is to use a computer connected to the RS-232 port.  Is it finally time to connect an Arduino ?

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm