I was pretty skeptical when Gadgeteer first hit. Let’s rephrase that. I thought it was a dumb idea. I honestly did. I thought, I don’t have the ability to do SMD stuff, now I’m not going to be able to directly access the pins, I’m going to have these stupid freaking cables all over the dang place and to top it all off more libraries to throw at the chip. Great, just great.
Obviously I had to eat those words. Gadgeteer does still present prototyping issues for people like me that have the electronic skills of a guppy, but I’ve been really pleased with it, even though I’ve still found myself cursing to high heavens lack of certain socket types on my mainboard of choice: FEZ Hydra.
But while it does have that bit of drawback, being able to plug and unplug pieces instead of solder & desolder is fantastic. Knowing that (besides some things like the WiFi module) if a mainboard has the right socket type I can take one module and put it on any board is fantastic.
And one day, when I have no where else to spend my money, I’ll order up a set of PTH socket headers so I can start prototyping with the limited skills I have once again.
As for GO! it feels like people taking my initial gut reaction and running with it instead of taking the time to get to know the system and how truly lovely it can be. I think it’s bound to cause confusion, especially for people like me who tend to get too wrapped up on how neat a module is and order it before the check if it is indeed actually compatible with what they’re using.
/Rant
Now Gus, about that Hydra with USB support, or perhaps getting the chip to run at it’s full 240HMz
I get the impression that netduino Go is meant for people who are not using it for prototyping, but as an end in itself. Basically for people who want to tinker and have no intention of producing a “final product” with it, much like Lego bricks or an Erector set. That’s why they have a focus on ultimate flexibility - you want to plug in eight PWM’s? they got you covered. Gadgeteer on the other hand seems to be designed to be a prototyping system, where you get some flexibility but the ultimate goal is to get a final design to put in a dedicated PCB, so you get as much flexibility as the SoC you’re using will allow. That’s why with Gadgeteer you need more than one motherboard type to address the different needs (do I want more PWMs or video out?), whereas the only upgrades I see for Go are more sockets and beefier CPUs.
What makes this really interesting is the fact that the basic design philosophies are very different, but they use the same system software and the two designs allow for adapter modules to be made for each other - it’s very likely possible to bit-bang a Go module from an S socket (if not, definitely Y), and someone will probably make gadgeteer go modules. That means that no-one is locked in by their initial decision and people will be able to easily migrate from one platform to the other, allowing for a very level playfield. The next few months will reveal how the two platforms stack up against each other technologically (eg how much latency does talking to a go module add? on the other hand, could you have 10 servo controllers in one go module with no noticeable overhead over having just one?). The open source nature of both means that the final outcome will not be in the hands of two competing companies. My prediction is that in about a year either Go will be a footnote in history or GHI will be selling Go-compatible boards
