OLIMEXINO-85S may have held the title of the world’s smallest Arduino (compatible) board for the last few years, being barely bigger than a micro SD card as it measures about 16.9 x 12.7 mm, but there’s a new mini champion in town with μduino board measuring just 12 x 12 mm.
μduino board specifications:
- MCU – Microchip Atmel ATMEGA32U4 8-bit AVR microcontroller @ 16 MHz with 2,560 bytes of RAM, 32KB flash, and 1024 bytes of EEPROM (Arduino Leonardo compatible)
- I/Os
- 6x Analog I/O ports
- 14x Digital I/O ports (including Rx/Tx) including 7x PWM
- 1x Analog reference voltage port
- 1.27mm pitch
- Programming / Debugging – 1x micro USB port; 6-pin ICSP programming ports (load custom bootloaders, program other boards, etc)
- Misc – Status LED, reset button
- Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port; 5V voltage regulator (accepts up to 16V DC); 2x 5V ports; 2x ground ports
- Dimensions – 12x 12 mm with 2 mounting holes (prototype is 14×14 mm)
The µduino board is said to be particularly suited for projects such as a mini quad-copter, a GPS logging module, small multimeters, heart rate monitors, and other wearables. The project has launched on Crowdsupply with a $5,000 US funding goal. While µduino may be the smallest Arduino board, it’s not quite the cheapest, as you’d need to pledge $18 to get the board with a micro USB cable. Shipping is free to the US, and $7 to the rest of the world, with delivery scheduled for the end of September 2017.
Via LinuxGizmos
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Wow it’s awesome, it could fit anywhere. I suspect that if it takes off, some Chinese manufacturers will copy it and provide it for $2-$4 like most such generic arduino-like boards. That could be something Olimex themselves consider (ie: be very profitable on this for the first year or so and accept to see others copy it and spread it at a lower price).
@Willy
The current Olimex model is already quite small, and costs 5 Euros. It’s based on ATTiny85, so with less flash and RAM than uDuino.
Just saw the release email… this will certainly give boards like the Digispark a good run for it’s money… similar small size, yet the power USB CDC and all that extra SRAM and flash memory, plus just a few more I/Os 😉 And I don’t think we have any fears of it not being funded… only a couple hours in and it’s already 22% funded 😉 I hope they’ve got a good supply line in place for the parts… I think there’s going to demand issues with this one! 😀
@Peter
Good project, but it would have been nicer if the price was slightly lower.
The similar (but bigger) DFRobots Beetle goes for about $11 shipped: https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?ltype=wholesale&d=y&origin=y&isViewCP=y&catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20170629020722&SearchText=beetle+arduino&blanktest=0&tc=af
There are already ATtiny dev boards for below £0.90p on Aliexpress, at this rate they will be paying us to take them next!
@Willy
It seems they already are already done.
I haven’t bought this yet, but one day I will for sure. If you cut off most of the USB connector and solder wires for power or something, it’s probably even smaller (albeit with fewer pins).
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mini-SS-Micro-ATMEGA32U4-Module-Board-Compatible-For-Arduino-Pro-Micro-New-Arrival/32775172773.html
@Daniel
This one is obviously interesting, though it’s around 2.8-3 times the MCU’s size in both directions. Olimex’s is less than twice the MCU size, so it’s roughly 1.5 times smaller, still keeping the USB and even the reset button. They really did a good job!
Pico is another small Arduino board, but it’s bigger than the micro board @ 1.52 x 1.52 cm: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/melbel/pico-the-worlds-smallest-arduino-board