Arduino board clones have been around for many years, but I don’t think I have ever seen clones of the new Renesas-based Arduino boards so far. Waveshare changes that with the R7FA4 PLUS A that clones with Arduino UNO R4 Minima, and the R7FA4 PLUS B board duplicating the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi.
The Waveshare boards are not 100% clones with some small differences in the PCB layout, support for 5V and 3.3V shields, an additional 6-pin “power output header” with 5V, 3.3V, and GND signals, and a USB communication jumper to select between the Espressif ESP32-S3 and Renesas RA4M1 microcontrollers.
Waveshare R7FA4 PLUS A and B specifications:
- Microcontroller – Renesas RA4M1 Arm Cortex-M4F MCU @ 48 MHz with 32KB SRAM, 256KB flash
- Wireless (B model only) – ESP32-S3-MINI-1 module based on ESP32-S3 dual-core Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with 512KB SRAM, 384KB ROM, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, PCB antenna
- Display (B model only) – 12×8 LED matrix (red)
- USB – 1 x USB Type-C port for power and programming
- Expansions
- Arduino UNO headers with Pins
- 14x digital I/Os
- 13x LED pins
- Analog – 6x analog input pin, 2x 12-bit analog DAC
- 6x PWM
- 1x UART, 1x I2C, 1x SPI
- CAN Bus support
- I/O Voltage – 5V and 3.3V (Not available on Arduino boards, but works on Waveshare board – TBC)
- I/O current – 8 mA
- R7FA4 PLUS B only
- Qwiic I2C connector for expansion modules.
- 3-pin header with an “OFF” pin to turn off the board and a “VRTC” pin to keep the internal Real-Time Clock powered and running.
- Arduino UNO headers with Pins
- Debugging and programming – 6-pin ICSP header; R7FA4 PLUS A only: 10-pin SWD header
- Misc – Reset button, Power LED, USB communication jumper
- Power Supply
- Input voltage – 6 to 24V via a power barrel jack or Vin, 5V via USB-C port
- Output header – 6-pin header with 5.5V and 3.3V (not found on the original Arduino UNO R4 boards)
- Dimensions – 68.6 x 53.4mm
Both the Waveshare R7FA4 Plus A and B boards are functionally equivalent to the Arduino UNO R4 Minima and WiFi boards, except for the additional support for 3.3V Arduino shields (on top of 5V ones) and the extra power output header. That means software for the official Arduino boards will run on the “clones”, but Waveshare still provides a wiki for each board with further hardware documentation, the PDF schematics, and a guide showing how to get started with the Arduino IDE.
Pricing for the Arduino UNO R4 “clones” is not that different from the original boards with the Waveshare R7FA4 Plus A going for $21.59 including shipping on Aliexpress and the Waveshare R7FA4 Plus B selling for $27.89 shipped. Both boards are also available on Amazon for respectively $21.99 (Model A) and $29.99 (Model B).
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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I have found one more clone named “Jomardyan Uno R4 WiFi”. Search for it in Google but you will probably only find an Allegro shop offer and no documentation or manufacturer website.