Raspberry Pi + Ardunio

In a few weeks I will acquire a Raspberry Pi kit and Ardunio UNO kit for my own embedded system exploration. Will report back when I get them.

Here is a list of materials needed for this project:

1. Raspherry Pi model B: to serve as the master brain in the system. The Pi has an ARM microprocessor and standard IOs, much as a regular computer. It also comes with a Linux distribution (Raspbian), and support programming with Python (my favorite programming platform).

2. Ardunio UNO R3: to serve as a slave brain in the system. The Pi is a full fledge OS, but not perfect to perform real time work, such as, accurate timing. Ardunio has a microcontroller on it (ATmega328), which is capable of real time work. The on-the-chip ADC can be used to sense the physical world (through sensor add-ons).

3. Some basic electronics components such as: resistors, transistors, capacitors, jumper wires and so on.

4. Some interesting sensors will be great. I am thinking as least a temperature sensor, an accelerometer, a camera or a photo cell. 

5. I also need a way to control motors, if I decide to build some robotics or automation stuff. A motor controller and some stepper motors will be necessary.

6. For home automation application, I might also need a relay board with a bunch of 120VAC relays controllable with the digital IO from the Pi. The advantage of doing it with the Pi, instead of the ardunio is that one can control the Pi and hence the relays remotely on the web.

7. Neither the Pi or Arduino has built-in DAC. If I want to build a real-time function generator (probably better off with Arduino since it's a real-time system), a DAC is needed.

8. Of course, I definitely need a multi-meter on my bench to measure voltage and stuff.