Arduino R4

[AlanTheBeast]

The Arduino R4 sports a 32 b ARM processor at a nice work capable 48 MHz, 256 KB of Flash and 32 KB of RAM.

Is there a FreePascal path to that?  The thought of barfing Arduino sketch-C at that thing gives me the geebies[1]!

Don't need no stinkin' OS!  Embedded Runtime for me!

Edits: Corrected memory size (KB, not MB) - caught by: alpine
---
[1] Geebies - a queasy feeling of unease mixed with a fear of forever lost time.

[ccrause]

Are you specifically referring to the minima? That is a Cortex M4 so in principle it is supported, however I don't see a controller unit for the RA4M1 so definitions for the peripherals will be missing.

[marcov]

Hmm, CAN and DMA, and shop also has a W5500 shield ...

[alpine]

The Arduino R4 sports a 32 b ARM processor at a nice work capable 48 MHz, 256 MB of Flash and 32 MB of RAM.

Kilo, not Mega

The MCU on the board is the high performance Renesas RA4M1 (Arm® Cortex®-M4) with a 48 MHz clock speed, 32 kB SRAM and 256 kB flash memory.

[AlanTheBeast]

The Arduino R4 sports a 32 b ARM processor at a nice work capable 48 MHz, 256 MB of Flash and 32 MB of RAM.

Kilo, not Mega

The MCU on the board is the high performance Renesas RA4M1 (Arm® Cortex®-M4) with a 48 MHz clock speed, 32 kB SRAM and 256 kB flash memory.

Doh!  I think I forgot how to type K__

Even with that many Kbs I can do a lot.

[AlanTheBeast]

Hmm, CAN and DMA, and shop also has a W5500 shield ...

They have a very nice 9 axis shield as well...
9-axis shield

Moderator notice: fixed link. =--> As poster was looking around to see how to fix it... thanks.

[Laksen]

As said, it's a Cortex-M4 with FPU. Well-supported instruction set in FPC

But.. It's a Renesas. Personally I'm not touching their stuff
Case in point, they only have a single Errata sheet published. For a device with a 1400 page manual

[AlanTheBeast]

As said, it's a Cortex-M4 with FPU. Well-supported instruction set in FPC

But.. It's a Renesas. Personally I'm not touching their stuff
Case in point, they only have a single Errata sheet published. For a device with a 1400 page manual

What device is that?

I can't speak to this new Arduino, but having used many Arduino's for many, many small projects with ease and reliability, I wouldn't dismiss them for project boots at all.  I also use them to "s]"]>Blockedlate" other projects (in effect make sensor or actuator simulators for other devices during development and test).  My son made a drone that measured interior dimensions of rooms with one.

They also have a more professional line of boards for manufacturers, in there caution is warranted - but then the proof is in the eating.

[marcov]

They have a very nice 9 axis shield as well...
9-axis shield

I have my own axis platform for slightly heavier motor, based on external ACT closed loop stepper drivers(typically Reichelt) in combination with an own dspic33e board. 3/4 active motors per board that can run concurrently with very low CPU use. (using hardware peripherals for the pulse generation). 

Disadvantage: Eur 30-50 per axis for the driver.
Advantage: with the motor done by the external driver and the peripheral code done, it is almost scripting to program actions.  Also we can generate hardware derivative signals of the movement ( a pulse every configurable pulses of the motor) for e.g. precision triggering.

[AlanTheBeast]

They have a very nice 9 axis shield as well...
9-axis shield

I have my own axis platform for slightly heavier motor, based on external ACT closed loop stepper drivers(typically Reichelt) in combination with an own dspic33e board. 3/4 active motors per board that can run concurrently with very low CPU use. (using hardware peripherals for the pulse generation). 

Disadvantage: Eur 30-50 per axis for the driver.
Advantage: with the motor done by the external driver and the peripheral code done, it is almost scripting to program actions.  Also we can generate hardware derivative signals of the movement ( a pulse every configurable pulses of the motor) for e.g. precision triggering.

Sounds too steady state for my needs - or I'm not getting what you're doing.

Given their market of the "maker" / "hobbyist" / "tinkerer" this shield is pretty good.  I've integrated (badly so far) a SparkFun 6 axis (gyros and accels) board to a RaspPi under Ultibo (RTL) - hard to debug when you go in the weeds alone - this shield looks easier to use and better (and is larger and heavier too....).  I'm tempted to get the R4 and make it the inertial platform to feed reduced ("integral") data to the Pi.  (If your "he's a lazy bastard" detector went off, it's in good order).

[marcov]

Sounds too steady state for my needs - or I'm not getting what you're doing.

Simple, pick up a beer bottle, put it down a meter further. Wine bottle works too, as do jars for vegetables and pickled stuff. I tried an olive oil bottle (here they are typically square) once, and while it could lift it, but was an edge case. It would require punched out the side of the machine, and a better solution for counter weights. Luckily none of our customers has pressurised bottles (like champagne) since those are even heavier.  3 axis (clench, lift and move) using spiral spindles.

It is professional in 24x7 use, but basically a scaled out hobby/maker design and components, like all our electronics. CPU wise, our main workhorse is the micrcohip dspic33<flash kb>MU/MC8xx series.

But since we have our own pick-n-place we are less bound by what is available.


I'm interested in the R4 for some ARM experience, and having SPI and CAN (peripherals that we use a lot) is a pre.  The SPI we use to connect to W5500, which is on said ethernet shield

[AlanTheBeast]

I'm interested in the R4 for some ARM experience, and having SPI and CAN (peripherals that we use a lot) is a pre.  The SPI we use to connect to W5500, which is on said ethernet shield

Not sure using such an Arduino would constitute "ARM experience" as the processor detail is well obfuscated - esp. if you use the Arduino "sketch" IDE.

I'd be interested in programming the the R4 in Pascal but not up to working out how to get it going.

[Laksen]

I'm interested in the R4 for some ARM experience, and having SPI and CAN (peripherals that we use a lot) is a pre.  The SPI we use to connect to W5500, which is on said ethernet shield

Not sure using such an Arduino would constitute "ARM experience" as the processor detail is well obfuscated - esp. if you use the Arduino "sketch" IDE.

I'd be interested in programming the the R4 in Pascal but not up to working out how to get it going.

It says on the page for the product that it's a "Renesas RA4M1" microcontroller

[marcov]

I'd be interested in programming the the R4 in Pascal but not up to working out how to get it going.

No idea. I also don't know how complicated the R4 is getting it running naked (for the Arduino Due that is quite involved, and I never got around to it)

[AlanTheBeast]

I'd be interested in programming the the R4 in Pascal but not up to working out how to get it going.

No idea. I also don't know how complicated the R4 is getting it running naked (for the Arduino Due that is quite involved, and I never got around to it)

Arduino Sketch is pretty simple - I've used it for half a dozen or more projects - so I assume starting there for the R4 is just as easy.

What I see as problematic with the R4 is the program complexity getting larger (because: more flash and RAM), so managing it all with Sketch might not be ideal.  Don't know (haven't looked) if there are alter IDE's for Arduino - probably are.  There are certainly a lot of libraries out there for various functions and add on boards and devices.