WooHOO! We managed to get large, grippy wheels made for our GM2 & GM3 series of gearmotors! If you're familiar with the Parallax / MarkIII style Minisumo, these wheels might look familiar. The critical difference is that these wheels are keyed to fit the double-flat of our own gearmotors! We're presently stocking the black and […]
Arduino Uno and Neeeew York City!
Dave Hrynkiw
September 29, 2010
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
Wednesday Cool Links: First Batch for 20...
Well, it appears that some people around the office are a bit grumpy after having to come back from their nice long winter hibernation. But it's the New Year! Time to feel awesome and optimistic and bubbly about the upcoming year full of possibilities. That's okay though, they just need to be injected with a […]
Closed for Thanksgiving
Greetings! Just a quick note that Solarbotics is closed this Monday October 9th for Canadian Thanksgiving. Sorry if this is an inconvenience for you, but this turkey has made an appointment with us that we just can't miss! We'll be back to business as usual on Tuesday. See you then!
GM19 Gearmotors in action!
We've had a great email come in from "Team Wazio", who are using our GM19 gear motors in their ant/fairyweight battlebots. Neat construction details - worth a look-see! (Yes, we know they're using the RW2 wheels and we're sold out, but we're taking care of that...)
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.