October 25, 2025
Arduino development is special because it's not just software, and as the old saying goes: hardware is hard. My current project would have easily taken me a full day or more to do myself, between figuring out how to wire everything up and then the code-debug cycles.
Hardware Layouts and Initial Development
Both GPT5 and Claude did a great job providing hardware layouts in addition to the software. This is huge—getting both the wiring diagram and the code in one shot accelerates development dramatically.
However, GPT5 was substantially slower. So much so that I now want to switch Zurzai.com from GPT5 to Claude, or at least test it. GPT5 just isn't performant.
Troubleshooting: Where Claude Shines
But the real help was in troubleshooting. Multi-agent is the way to troubleshoot anything thorny, and it was great to simply paste an error in and get the correct response. Claude was the one that helped me. And it was fast.
A Minor Quibble: Too Much Help?
I will say that Claude was trying to be a little too helpful initially, creating INO files that I could download and use with the IDE etc. This is fine, but pretty heavy. In the end all I wanted was cut and paste, and I was able to get that after asking for it.
The Verdict
This round goes to Claude.
For embedded development on the Arduino Uno, Claude Sonnet 4.5 delivers faster responses, better troubleshooting, and the same quality hardware guidance as GPT5. If you're doing Arduino development with AI assistance, Claude should be your first choice.
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