Arduino Uno and Neeeew York City!

Dave Hrynkiw
September 29, 2010

Arduino Uno in Stock at Solarbotics!We're back from the Open Source Hardware Summit and the Maker Faire! Did lots; learned lots; got lots of touristy things done too.

One of the main highlights was meeting and listening to talks by three of the principle members of the Arduino team.  They took pity on English-speakers, and named the new revision the Arduino "UNO" which we now have in stock, along with the upgraded Arduino Mega 2560. Here (in short) are the principle differences between the Duemilanove and the new Uno:

  • It uses the same microcontroller as before, but is on a new re-branded board ("Uno") with slicker packaging & graphics. Oh, and a logo too!
  • The pin lables are a bit tighter, and better show how they are used (hardware PWM is marked with a "~")
  • Stickers! And neat paperwork explaining warrantee, how it was made and tested, and how each purchase helps protect a 1/2 square meter of Madagascar forest. Cool.
  • CE / FCC certification. This is an important one, which assures electronics performance & noise control. Not an inexpensive proposition - kudos on getting this certification!
  • Smaller bootloader - gives you more space for code for sketches!
  • Better 3.3V regulator on board (old 3.3V came from FTDI chip, which was a bit wimpy)
  • MOST IMPORTANT CHANGE: Replacement of the FTDI USB/TTL interface chip with an ATmega8U2 microcontroller. It's apparently cheaper, faster and definitely a whole lot more flexible. There's even a separate ICSP header on the UNO to let you reprogram this second microcontroller to make your Arduino UNO appear to be something vastly different USB device to your operating system.

The Open Source Hardware Summit was a busy day (went by very quick) and in general was quite well attended. Practically all the rock-stars of the genre were there, and all the talks were well worth the price of admission. We were happy to put our sponsorship behind an event of this quality, as it brought out very interesting discussions. I won't delve too deep into it here - view the archived video of the event, and see for yourself!

MORE POSTS

April 11, 2005
Sumovore Line-follower

This link is a bit on the old side, but if you are thinking of entering the WCRG event next month, here's last year's champion's (Craig Limber) webpage about turning his Sumovore into an almost-as-good line follower! It's a good way to get into this rapidly-growing event...

April 1, 2004
New Kits: The Spazovore and the SunSwing...

Yup, we've got a few new kits ready, the Spazovore beginner's kit, and the SunSwinger Pendulum kit. We're pretty happy with both of these kits, so scroll down a bit, and read about them below!

February 16, 2001
More Biobot info, and Mark Tilden Lectur...

Mark Tilden just sent us this link - there are more BioBots! The "B.I.O. Bots" were a hit at this years New York Toy Fair and it looks like we might be seeing more of these robots in the future! USA Today carried some pictures of the new BEAM ideology based robots, along with some […]

October 14, 2009
MakerBEAM

Ok, besides being a conjunction of two things we really love (Make Magazine & BEAM Robotics), it also is an open-source hardware project that is about little "T-Beams". This project is using the "KickStarter" model of sponsorship. Ask for pledges for the projects, and if the minimum is met (and it has - yay!), the […]

Solarbotics Ltd Logo
Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!

Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.

Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.

cart