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Know the Differences: Arduino and ESP32

Due to skyrocketing progress in the semiconductor industry, microcontrollers like the Arduino development boards have come a long way since their origin and are readily available for projects of all kinds.

In this comparison article, we will dissect Arduino and esp32 to know their differences and which one of these to buy.

if you need something to be battery-powered or don’t need tons of hardware performance. This is where the microcontroller is ideal for embedded projects. It can perform a single task at booting and doesn’t need an operating system like Linux or Windows, as is the case of a personal home computer. Microcontrollers can be found in microwaves, automobiles, and heart monitors, just to name a few examples.

Arduino

Perhaps the most popular brand of microcontrollers is Arduino. To be clear, the Arduino is a development board with a microcontroller chip. What began as a project in 2005 to provide students at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Ivrea, Italy, with devices for physical computing, led to affordable and easy-to-use platforms. Since releasing their first board, the Arduino Diecimila, they’ve come a long way.

Esp32

Espressif Systems is another world leader in microcontroller development. With offices in China, the Czech Republic, India, Singapore, and Brazil, they’ve brought to the world the Esp8266 and Esp32 series of chips, modules, and development boards, all starting in 2008.

Since initial reports of esp8266 sales started dipping,esp32 has taken the center stage, they are considered to be trending for their versatility and furthermore, these boards will have a strong foundation in the future.

The difference in Operating Voltage

The operating voltage of the ESP microprocessors is 3.3 V compared to the Arduino operating voltage of 5V. If the boards are used while connected to the socket, there will be no difference in the power consumption because the current will be reduced to gather the same amount of power.

 In the case of being battery-powered, the difference will be much greater because if the battery discharging curve falls below the operating voltage, the microprocessor will shut down.

Why is the ESP32 a good option for Arduino Users??

The Arduino as told earlier, Arduino is for beginners, if the users want to move to advanced projects or advanced versions of boards, yet keeping in mind the simplicity, then the  esp32 board is for you.

What makes the ESP32 an excellent choice for people that are familiar with the Arduino is the software. Espressif, which is the company that designs and makes the ESP32, has made a huge effort in writing software that bridges the hardware gap between the ESP32 and the Arduino.

Thanks to the software, the ESP32 can be treated as being compatible with the Arduino:

  • We can use the Arduino IDE as the development environment.
  • We can use a programming language that matches almost one-on-one with the language that we have learned for the Arduino.
  • And, to a large extent, we can re-use almost 90 percent of the Arduino libraries in software that we write for the ESP32, which is pretty amazing.

So What Projects can be built with Esp32 ??

THE ESP32 boards are great when you have projects that deals with Bluetooth and wifi, mainly such as Home automation IoT using Cloud, Weather Station & IAQ Monitoring on MQTT, Monitoring CCS811 CO2 & TVOC on ESP32 Web server, LoRa Based Wireless Weather Station with ESP32, Gas Leakage Detector with Email Alert Notification using ESP32.

What Projects can be built with Arduino??

As said the fact that Arduino is for beginners, using Arduino one can build some amazing projects and make their way to the world of IoT. Arduino builders can build projects such as Lcd gaming, Arduino controlled traffic lights, Mini robots, ultrasonic security systems, etc.

Arduino vs Esp32 – Which one to choose??

The ESP32 dev kit is actually cheaper than Arduino Uno, which means that you get a more powerful board for a lower price.

At the level where you use your existing Arduino skills to work with the ESP32, you can treat the ESP32 as a supercharged Arduino Uno: faster, better in many respects.

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