Intel Galileo Gen.1 with Windows

[mariuwilk]

Hi guys,
I though that some of my recent experiences with this library, an MPU6050 and a "fully" Arduino-Compatible Intel Galileo Gen 1 board with Windows 8.1 Iot on it would be interesting to some. I had an idea for a project that would use the MPU6050. Since I had one of these Galileo boards on my shelf, and no Arduino, I decided to give it a go, since it's Arduino compatible.

I went for a standard C++ way of doing it. I used the Visual Studio, etc. The guys who made it possible to use Galileo with Windows did a very clever job of allowing to run ordinary Arduino sketches as well as powerful C++ programs. This is what allowed me to use this library. In general, it works. The samples work. They need to be modified to meet the compiler's requirements, though. There are, however loads of frustrating problems. The performance of this Galileo is far from satisfying. In short it is very poor. The sketches run very slowly, despite the Intel Quark 400MHz processor. The experience of using the DMP was the worst one. The DMP uses a lot of I2C transfers. This seems to be Galileo's weakness. The programs would always crash. They would crash at random points in time, and the fatal error would always relate to the I2C.

Eventually, I ended up getting one of the Arduino Uno R3 boards, the cheapest one I could find. The performance of this 8-bit 16MHz microcontroller in comparison to that Galileo is just stunning. It runs like a breze! It outperforms the Galileo by far when it comes to using this MPU6050 chip. The performance of GPIO operations in Galileo is just a disaster. A found a forum where a guy did a pin toggle speed test http://www.drdobbs.com/embedded-systems/galileo-the-slowest-fast-computer-around/240165716, The Uno outperforms Galileo by a factor of 500 when it comes to toggling a pin's state.

Also, in case someone would like to use Galileo with a battery.. Beware. A pack of 6xAA batteries lasts less than an our running only the DMP Sample with no other programs. I built a shield that has the MPU6050, HM-11 BLE module, and LED and a voltage regulator since Galileo Gen1 needs strictly 5VDC. For this kind of a system, a giant battery would be required. The Quark at times gets super hot, despite running no user processes. Basic Windows processes make it that hot. It literally hurts when you touch it with a finger.

cheers