Group assignment

Here’s the link to the group assignment.

Key learnings

In the group assignment we compared 2 different architectures - Arduino and ESP32- and 2 different toolchains - Arduino IDE and PlatformIO.
As an extra, in my own work I also tested the Pico W board with both toolchains and also made it work with Rust. I also tried and failed to use a faulty ESP32-CAM module.
My main personal learnings are:
- Both platforms hide away some complexity, like dealing with boot loaders
- Using C++ as a high level language abstracts away the different instruction set of each board and make the code mostly shareable across architectures, with some minor pin changes
- Arduino IDE is the most beginner friendly. It links to plenty of examples and libraries and does a 2 pass on the code, which means that a referenced function can be declared later than it is used
- Despite the name, Arduino IDE is not just for Arduino’s and supported all the boards that we had
- PlatformIO as extension to VSCode is more convenient if you’re past the absolute beginner phase.
- Boards that speak directly to USB save you the trouble of connecting other modules like a FTDI one, and reduce the chance of something being wrong.
- Likewise, the Grove connector system make it very convenient to experiment with different sensors and actuators