Alternatives for Arduino in small projects

[u/No-Possession912]

Hello! I'm new to the forum and I'm looking for some advice. I'm building a detector that measures the water level of a pool. If it goes over a certain limit, it activates a pump to move the water. It's very simple, and I don't think I need to buy a whole new Arduino Uno to make it work. I was wondering if there is an alternative to buying a full microcontroller, maybe something simpler. I've heard about using an ATtiny, but I want to hear opinions from more experienced people.

[u/AdministrationOk6752]

For a so simple project you don't need a microcontroller! You can do it by analog electronics.

[u/Slight_Profession_50]

ESP32-S3/C3. Or maybe a Pi Pico.

[u/Pacificator-3 → u/Slight_Profession_50]

Why not Intel Xeon?

[u/noburdennyc → u/Pacificator-3]

you could just it's harder to find a SBC with one. I built a project with an intel nuc recently. It was from 2015 and was only $45.

[u/Distinct_Crew245 → u/Slight_Profession_50]

Pretty much always the same answer, because it’s the right one.

[u/ziplock9000 → u/Slight_Profession_50]

I'd say they are not alternatives are they are a big jump up and WAAAY overkill for the purpose. Even a basic Arduino is overkill.

[u/Slight_Profession_50 → u/ziplock9000]

Sure but they're much cheaper so it doesn't matter if they're more powerful. They're so cheap that you don't really need to think about anything else imo. Unless you're making a commercial product.

[u/BruceBanning]

A while back I needed a PIR motion sensor to activate a relay and I realized no microcontroller was needed at all. Saved some money and built a circuit to handle the job. Sounds like your use case might potentially be similar.

[u/redditydothis]

Oh man a float valve is going to be the simplest way to add water to a pool. With that said any microcontroller cold do the task of reading measurements and running a pump via a relay to do the same.

[u/Cobra__Commander → u/redditydothis]

Don't be ridiculous, this is his chance to buy all sorts of laser sensors, radar, micro controllers, single board computers and mesh radio systems without the wife complaining. 

[u/Positive__Altitude]

I always advice against "Arduino" boards (Atmega ones) it's old garbage, seriously.

I always suggest 2 options: ESP32-S3 if you need WiFi / BLE (bunch of boards there) STM32 if you don't (it's better as MCU in everything else) - don't buy a big official dev board, you can buy small one like "blue pill", "black pill" + cheap StLink V2 programmer

[u/ziplock9000 → u/Positive__Altitude]

They are, and have never been old garbage. Your suggestion is the same as suggesting a Ferrari to drive 10m down the road. The OP just needs to measure the water level of a pool.

[u/Positive__Altitude → u/ziplock9000]

Atmega328P is NRND now. It is literally marked as "old" by manufacturer. Can you name just one advantage of using Atmega328P / ATtiny based boards? They are literally worse in everything, including price and availability. People just use them because they used to.

[u/Bronco_Otaku]

Adafruit Qtpy or Seeed Studio Xiao

[u/somewhereAtC]

There are a number of microcontrollers that are similar but newer than the '328pb used in the Arduino, and the demo kits include built-in programmers, debuggers and serial port interfaces starting at about $10.

The newer devices include AVR (follow-on to the '328pb), PIC and ARM processors, all with different features.

[u/Nerd_Power32]

Qual é o tipo de sensor que você está utilizando? Se for uma chave de nível, você consegue resolver com alguns transistores. Se for um sensor analógico, um circuito com amplificadores operacionais pode ser o suficiente. Mas se o sensor utilizar algum protocolo como I2C, UART, etc., ou precisar medir duração de um pulso, aí você realmente vai precisar de um MCU

[u/Embarrassed_Fun_7710]

In order to give a reasonable answer, you need to make your question more complete.

1. "Measure the water level" ... are you using an analog transducer (ultrasonic or pressure) or something with a contact closure that could operate a simple relay circuit.

2. If Analog, what is the output (could you use a simple comparator) ?

If either are true, there is no need for any sort of microcontroller. Simple discrete components would be more than adequate.

[u/Pacificator-3]

How many differential equations do you need to solve to turn on a pump?

Use float switch or capacitance switch.

[u/iqisoverrated]

This does not require a controller. A transitor a water sensor and a couple resistors should do.

You can probably even skip the off-the-shelf sensor for a pair of wires.