Are you looking forward for an Arduino style embedded system based on an Atmega microcontroller, but with more features at the same price point? Here it is! The Mini Duino+.
This tiny and very cheap microcontroller board is Arduino compatible, and comparing its features with existing Arduino boards, it’s definitely situated above the Arduino attributes.
Passing through the timeline of small Arduino compatible boards, anyone can discover at least two problems. The first problem it could be labeled as a space difficulty. This issue occurs when the dimensions are kept small, while the final product cannot reach the same number of features and abilities comparable with an Arduino board. The second problem is to keep the cost down.
With an innovative design and including powerful components without compromising the performance, the Mini Duino+ passed both problems. It could offer more processing power, more RAM, more flash memory, more EEPROM, and many more GPIO pins than the Arduino UNO.
The Atmega 1284p Microcontroller
If you already use the Arduino board with its ATmega 328p, you may know how fast and limited by space constraints it’s the microcontroller. The Duino Plus comes with something new in term of processing. It has integrated an ATmega 1284P AVR in place of the common ATmega 328p largely used in the current Arduino hardware. The 1284P has more programming space and is cheap enough for the perfect mix between performance and cost.
The same Arduino IDE compatible with Linux, Windows and OS X is used for writing code.
GPIO Pins and Interfaces
Get more with more pins and more interfaces. With up to 32 I/O pins, the board can source up to 40 mA of current per pin instead of 25 mA capabilities of several others ARM based boards. Among other interfaces, the embedded system includes 2 X UART, 8 X analog input and 8 X PWM pins, 3 X external interrupt pins, SPI and I2C interfaces.
Few Words About The Price
When will be released on the market, the Mini Plus is planned to have a price of $15 including shipping. With such a cost, the microcontroller board could become a hit in the large world of makers and hackers.