STEMTera, a Proper Way to Do Arduino

When I was asked to review the STEMTera I had absolutely no idea what it was. The website, of the type that does not clearly mention what it is about, left me a bit puzzled, but when I opened the box, the product’s purpose became immediately clear and I loved the idea.

The Elektor Uno R4 is like an Arduino Uno but featuring two UARTs, two I²C (IIC or TWI) ports, two SPI ports, 24 GPIOs, eight analogue inputs, nine timers, and more. Based on the B-type of the ATmega328 microcontroller popularised by the Arduino Uno, the Elektor Uno R4 is the 100%-compatible successor to the Uno that the Arduino team failed to design. So we did it for you. Sign up for one (or more) Uno R4's at GroupGets.

When a manufacturer releases a B version of an existing product the differences between the old and the new are usually small. Not so in the case of Atmel’s ATmega328P, the processor at the heart of the Arduino Uno R3. The B-type of this MCU has so many extra features that a new revision of the R3 is justified. Enter the Elektor Uno R4.

The Elektor Uno R4 is an Arduino Uno R3 equiped with the ATmega328PB-AU featuring 2x USART, 2x I2C and 2x SPI and much more.

This board is an evolution of the Arduino Uno R3 board. Identical form factor as the Uno but based on the ATmega328PB-AU, this board has many more features than the Uno. Because it is backwards compatible you can think of it as revision 4 of the Uno, which is why we called it the R4.

Announced a few months ago at the Rome Maker Faire 2015, the new Intel Curie-based Arduino/Genuino 101 board is now finally shipping. One of these boards landed on my desk, so I gave it a try.

eRIC Nitro features an ATmega328 AVR microcontroller with Arduino bootloader and a low-power eRIC radio module operating in the ISM band (433 MHz with eRIC4, 868 or 915 MHz with eRIC9). The MCU and radio module can work together or independently, giving you two powerful microcontrollers on a 2.5x5 cm board. The original board is part of an Internet connected weather station by Alex Robertson. It was the winning project of the LPRS contest.

Platino is Elektor's universal Arduino-compatible AVR board for 28- and 40-pin ATmega controllers. The PCB was overhauled and updated to v1.4. This version of Platino has significantly improved from the previous version.

“First we looked at electronic trinkets”, says Anne Jan Brouwer from IJhack, a hacker collective geared toward helping people understand technology. “but those you just solder together and there isn’t much else you can do with them after that.” Preparing for their first workshop the IJhack members were looking for a project to offer to participants.

This project was born after I discovered the Atmegatron music synthesizer from Soulsby Synthesizers [1]. This synthesizer is built around an ATmega328 8-bit AVR microcontroller from Atmel, the same that is at the heart of the Arduino Uno board.