Even before the hikes, SBCs were $50-$100 a pop, compared to pennies for basic MCUs and maybe $4 for high-performance ones. People were clearly willing to pay 100x more just for familiarity and the ecosystem ("hats", forums, etc). I don't know if 300x is going to make more hobbyists see the light, or just result in fewer of them being able to afford the hobby?

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KPGv2 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> People were clearly willing to pay 100x more just for familiarity and the ecosystem

This is obviously logical. If I know how to program in Python or JS but not C and am familiar with SSH, I can do something with a SBC in a few minutes.

I get paid $200/hr. If I spent even one hour to learn what I need to deal with a microcontroller, the time cost is four times the cost of materials if I stick with what I know.

How many small projects do I need to do in my free time before it's financially smart to learn a whole new technology?

	▲	telotortium 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		With LLMs, it's potentially a lot easier to use microcontrollers now, depending on how widely available the documentation is now.

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charcircuit 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That's an apples to oranges comparison. Might as well bring up how people pay thousands of dollars for FPGA boards.

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chromacity 5 hours ago | parent [-]

No. Many hobbyists default to SBCs whether they need them or not. No one defaults to FPGA if they don't need it.

	▲	charcircuit 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		My point is that the FPGA boards are several orders of magnitude more expensive than the actual chip. To be fair you should be comparing between the cost of the SoC and the microcontroller.