SparkFun Arduino Comparison Guide
Also, software you can download, which is the arduino development environment that you can use to program. The different boards, almost everything in the arduino world, is considered to be open source. That means i can go online and find the schematics for these different boards and i can go and get the source code for the development environment. One of the other cool things about arduino is its ability to stack with these things called shields. For example, we have this mp3 player shield that we can stack on top of a few different arduinos. This allows us to play music and other sound files. Sparkfun offers many different arduino compatible boards that you can program with the arduino software. First up we have arduinos flagship and most popular board, the uno. The arduino uno is built around the atmel atmega328p microcontroller. This runs at 16 megahertz, it offers 14 digital input, output, pins or i o pins, and six of those can be used for pulse width, modulation or pwm. On the other side, youll notice, another six pins that can be used for analog inputs. The 328p offers 32 kilobytes of flash memory, which is used for holding programs and 2 kilobytes of ram notice that the input output pins run at 5 volts, which means you want to be careful if youre trying to connect it to 3.3 volt logic, you could easily Damage something there are two versions of the uno available. First, is the plated through hold version or pth.
You can remove the microcontroller. If you really want just be careful doing it and then theres the smd or surface mount version. This uses a lower profile version of the microcontroller, but offers the same functionality as the pth version. The uno is a great board if youre just getting started in the world of arduino or embedded electronics, theres tons of documentation online, you can find about it. Next, we have the sparkfun red board. This is sparkfuns version of the arduino, with similar functionality to the uno. It combines several of our favorite features from different arduinos into one board. It is a bit cheaper and it allows us to control revisions and features when we teach classes with arduino, then we have the arduino pro. This uses the same 328p microcontroller, so it has more or less the same functionality as the uno. The biggest difference, youll notice, is that the pro comes without headers. This gives the user the option to solder on wires male or female headers, whatever they want. There are two different versions of the pro: the 3.3 volt version and the 5 volt version. Youll notice that some electronics can only handle 3.3 volts, you can easily damage these sensitive electronics with something like 5 volts notice that the speed has been reduced to 8 megahertz for the 3.3 volt version, but the 5 volt version still has a whopping 16 megahertz, the Arduino pro does not have built in usb support, so youre going to need a serial, cable or an ftdi breakout to program them.
Make sure that the voltage of the cable or the breakout matches the voltage listed on your arduino pro. Otherwise, you could end up hurting some electronics if you thought the pro was cool check out, the pro mini its exactly like the pro, but in a tiny form. Factor like the pro. The pro mini comes in 3.3 and 5 volt versions, and you will need a serial, cable or ftdi breakout to program them. The pro mini is my favorite arduino board to prototype, with its small, its cheap and its easy to fit on a breadboard, because theres, a 3.3 volt version available its great to use with 3.3 volt sensors. Then we have the pro micro. This is similar to the pro mini, but you dont need a special serial, cable or ftdi breakout to program it. The first thing youll notice about the pro micro, is that theres, a micro usb port on the board. It also uses a different chip. It uses the atmega32u4 which has built in usb support. There are 12 digital. I o pins and 5 of those can be used for pwm theres, an additional 4 analog input pins on the board as well like the 328p. The chip contains 32 kilobytes of flash, but theres a bit more ram at 2.5 kilobytes, like the pro mini. The pro micro comes in 3.3 volt and 5 volt versions where the 3.3 volt version runs at 8 megahertz and the 5 volt version runs at 16 megahertz.
One cool feature about the pro micro is that it can be used as a usb device. For example, i made this simple usb joystick that i can use to control the mouse around my screen. Next, we have the micro view. This is a small arduino compatible module with a built in oled display. The oled display is monochrome with a 64 by 48 pixel resolution. The micro view uses the same atmega328p microcontroller found in many of the other arduino products, theres 12 digital. I o pins and 6 analog input, pins notice that the pins run at 3.3 volt logic. There are a few ways to program the micro view, although the best is to use the micro view programmer. This is a really cool device to use. If you just want to make some simple graphics and then theres the arduino mega 2560, this is an uno on steroids. The mega uses the atmega 2560 processor running at 16, megahertz theres, a whopping 54 digital. I o pins and 15 of those can be used for pwm theres, an additional 16 analog inputs as well. It has 256 kilobytes of flash, which is a lot of room for your programs and 8 kilobytes of ram. This is a great device for when you need a ton of pins. It also has four hardware serial ports where the uno only has one. I find it really useful for when youre connecting to other serial peripherals and you need to send debugging information back to your computer.
This is the teensy 3.1 made by paul and robin at pjrc.com. The teensy can be programmed with the arduino software, but its built around the freescale mk20dx256. This is a 32 bit arm, cortex m4 processor running at 72 megahertz. This is four times faster than the uno. It has 256 kilobytes of flash 64 kilobytes of ram and 34. I o pins, all of these can be digital. I o pins, 12 of them can be pwm and 21 can be used for analog input. This thing has some serious processing power and its great for projects where you want that kind of power, or you need that number of pins. But you dont want to go to a full operating system like linux, running on a single board computer, its powerful enough, for example, to run our 32 by 32 led panel. Finally, we have the arduino unit and this is closer to a single board computer. The arduino unit has two processors on board. Underneath the metal can is an etheros ar9331, which is typically found in wi fi routers. It works at 400 megahertz and runs a custom version of linux, known as open wrt yoon, additionally theres an atmega32u4 on board which can be programmed with arduino. It has 32 kilobytes of flash and 2.5 kilobytes of ram much like the pro micro theres. Some features on the yun not found on other arduino boards, for example, it has ethernet and wi fi already on board, and it can work as a usb host.
So you can do things like plug in a flash drive, theres, a micro, usb port for programming power and communications and a micro sd card slot on the back side, theres 20, i o pins, of which seven of those can be used for pwm and 12 for Analog input you can program linux directly using a command line over serial through the 32u4 or logging. In with something like ssh, you can write python programs in linux as open. Wrtune comes preloaded with python 2.7. The yoon is a great way to network your electronics projects and get started with the internet of things. There are definitely more arduino compatible boards than what ive shown you here, but i hope ive. Given you some idea about whats available in the world of arduino, its a great place to start, if youve never played with microcontrollers or you just want to prototype, some electronics quickly check out learn.sparkfun.
