ARM dev tools for hobby level learning?

[Daklu]

I have an idea for a home project that's been floating around in my brain for a while involving some relatively simple image pattern recognition. I've done assembly on the 68HC11 and AVR 8-bit micros in years past, but for this one I'm thinking of trying my hand at ARM development.

Although it sounds like NI has some promising products on the way I'm guessing it will be too expensive for the hobby market. I've researched a few options and they are all lacking in some way...

Raspberry Pi - Hard to beat $25 for all the features this comes with. Unfortunately it's not available yet and I suspect it will take some time for self-learning material to develop... and to be honest my ventures into linux environments haven't been particularly fruitful.

Arduino Due - Arduino is a fairly mature platform with lots of available content to draw from. The Due is the first 32-bit ARM processor released for Arduino. Unfortunately, following a surge of post-maker faire publicity last fall the Due seems to have fallen off the planet. I couldn't even find references to it on Arduino's web site.

mbed - Another interesting dev platform. Though it is a little more expensive at $60 it has the advantage of actually being able to purchase it. The downside? It uses a web-based dev environment. Thanks, I'll pass.

Other tools I've found are positioned (and priced) as business tools, not hobbyist tools. Has anyone had particularly good experiences with an inexpensive ARM devkit and toolchain?

[asbo]

Any particular reason to go with ARM? For example, I've used PIC micros in the past and there's heaps of resources from Microchip et al.

[GovBob]

Daklu,

If your still interested in the Arduino the Uno replaced the Due. A great place to source it is Sparkfun.

I've purchased several items from them and it's been a pleasant experience.

[Daklu]

Thanks for the responses...

Any particular reason to go with ARM? For example, I've used PIC micros in the past and there's heaps of resources from Microchip et al.

Primarily because ARMs are so widely used. I figure if I'm going to be spending so much time learning a 32-bit micro I might as well learn the most commonly used one. I also would prefer to go with something that is a little more open-source so I'm not tied into one vendor.

If your still interested in the Arduino the Uno replaced the Due.

I think you are confusing the Due with the Duemilanove. The Due is a 32-bit controller. The Duemilanove (and it's replacement, the Uno) are 8-bit controllers. An 8 bit controller won't cut it for my intended application.

[MikeC3]

I'm in the queue to get a Raspberry Pi whenever they start shipping (estimates anywhere from April to August). My initial thoughts are using it as an ultra-light computer, rather than "traditonal" microprocessor uses, but it looks like it will work great with those, too.

[GovBob]

Sorry about that. I overlooked the 32bit part and assumed you meant the Duemilanove. Maybe the Netduino?

[Jordan Kuehn]

Have you checked out the BeagleBoard?

[Swinders]

I've used an ARM based board called Forebrain which is relatively cheap (about $44) and uses a 32bit ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller clocked at 72MHz. To program I've used YAGARTO which is an open source tool chain based on GNU ARM for Windows and it seem to work well.

[Daklu]

Thanks for all the suggestions everybody. I haven't finalized a decision yet but GovBob's suggestion for Netduino led me to Gadgeteer and the FEZ Spider Starter Kit. At $250 it's not cheap, but the combination of lots of hardware modules and a familiar dev environment (C#) is pretty compelling.