But it's so (cute/ interesting /beautiful /unusual /rare)!"

A long time ago, in a land far, far away, people who liked experimenting with computers either had a couple of machines that ran Windows, or a couple of machines that ran Apple's OS X. They took up lots of space, generated plenty of heat, and were usually kind of noisy. Then things got exciting. Over the last 2 or 3 years there has been an absolute explosion of new hobbyist computer boards, any one of which easily has more power than the computers I was using when I first started working, and for a thousandth of the cost, or less. To put icing on the cake, you could put dozens of them in a drawer, and run 20 with the power of one incandescent light bulb.

People who have inadvertently provided me with an opening, or those dealing with my Christmas list, frequently find themselves hearing about a bewildering wilderness of microcontroller/microprocessor boards with names like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or Beaglebone Black. Since I am certain that all my friends and relatives are just as eager to understand this world as they are to appreciate the relative merits of Cryptanthus or Neoregelia, I thought it would be worthwhile to post this link to a rather good overview of the most common hobbyist microprocessor boards.

Of the boards named in the article, I currently have two Arduinos, one of which is controlling the water level in the fountain at Finch Estates, plus 3 Arduino clones, two BeagleBone Blacks, one of which monitored the greenhouse temperature over the winter, an Arduino Yun, and a Raspberry Pi. Plans call for the Yun to run sprinklers in the front yard and monitor the front door security camera, one BBB to run the backyard sprinklers and greenhouse monitoring, and the other BBB to act as a backup server. The Raspberry Pi is supposed to end up being a DVR for over-the-air TV, but it might also end up being the security camera driver for the back door. The Arduino clones will probably eventually find their place running landscape lighting, or potentially measuring soil moisture in the beds so the sprinklers can be run at need instead of on a fixed schedule.

There’s also a continually changing list of boards I'd like to get, but extolling their varied virtues will have to wait for another post. Just remember, you can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many examples of <insert your favorite hobby collectable here.>