January 2021 Hardware Roundup

Another month, another batch of boards!

Arduboy Nano

Back in 2015, Kevin Bates amazed us all with Arduboy, which shrunk 8-bit portable gaming down to a credit card-sized package. Since its successful debut, Bates has continued to design new variants of the device like the Arduboy Mini, and most recently, the 1” Arduboy Nano. Housed inside a 3D-printed enclosure is a 0.49” 64x32 OLED display, a 25mAh rechargeable battery, a 15mm piezo speaker, and the same ATmega32U4 microcontroller as its larger sibling. Bates notes that there are plans to produce this, but that might all change depending on its popularity. Keychain, anyone?

3.7V/4.2V LiPo Charger with USB Type-C Plug
The second product from Arturo182’s Solder Party brand is an MCP73831-based board for charging 3.7V/4.2V LiPo and lithium-ion batteries directly from a USB Type-C port. It features mounting holes, status LEDs, and the de facto standard JST connector. By default, the charge current is 500mA. Those wishing to get their hands on one can now do so on Tindie for only $4.50.

microZERO
Inspired by the Arduino MKR Zero, SRKH Designs created a SAM D21 module for applications such as drone control, mobile platforms, as well as other devices operating in hostile environments. The company has also debuted a pair of development boards, both with similar specs expect for an RGB color high-resolution IPS display, and the common Uno form factor. The microZERO packs 16MB of flash, an ATECCA508/608 crypto engine, a 1MBPS CAN controller, 32 fully-protected I/O, and a USB interface. What’s more, the module contains all onboard support circuitry including 5V/2.5A and 3.3V/1A PSUs, and is capable of accepting from 6V to 48V input, making it suitable for industrial environments and automotive use cases. SRKH Designs is funding the microZERO on Kickstarter, starting at $53 for just the module and $108 with the two dev boards.

DynaLoRa-USB
BHDynamics has launched a new open source, CircuitPython and Arduino-compatible USB radio dongle for low-cost LoRa exploration. Meant for plug-and-play use, the DynaLoRa-USB consists of a SAM D21 MCU with 32Mbit SPI flash, an RFM96W or RFM95W transceiver, a user-controllable RGB LED, a microSD slot, and a GPIO header exposing SWD interface, a full SERCOM (enabling external SPI/I2C/UART peripherals) and a DAC for prototyping. Those wishing to get started with LoRa can purchase the dongle for $30.

PyCorder

Joey Castillo’s PyCorder is a touch matrix-based SHARP Memory display device for CircuitPython GUI applications. The Star Trek-inspired board — which looks gorgeous in OSH Park’s After Dark — sports a SAM D51 at its core and a nine-pin connector system for expandability with sensors like moisture to monitor soil and an infrared LED and phototransistor to visualize pulse. Follow along with Castillo’s progress on Twitter and read Hackster’s deep dive here.  

The Butler
No stranger to Kickstarter, Patrick Thomas Mitchell is back with yet another campaign. Billed as an “educational talking Arduino computer set,” the Butler runs on an ATmega2560 – similar to the Arduino Mega – and offers a USB bridge for easy programming with the Arduino IDE. The board is equipped with a large audio vocabulary, an 8x8 LED matrix, a 10-button keypad, relay, eight DIP switches, an active buzzer, a 16x2 LCD display, an RTC with SWD card for datalogging, a microphone, a light sensor, an RF transceiver, an HC-06 Bluetooth module, and available I/O for interfacing with external circuitry. Beyond that, input for the Butler is via a PS/2 keyboard.

I2C Encoder Mini
A few years ago, Hackaday user Saimon developed a board for controlling multiple rotary encoders on the I2C bus dubbed the I2C Encoder. Now, he has released a smaller and cheaper version, driven by an ATtiny402 MCU. The aptly named I2C Encoder Mini can come in handy when there’s only a few GPIO, as it’s capable of connecting up to 127 boards and reading all of them with the same I2C bus with just three pins. The board will count and store every movement of the encoder, so no need to check the rotary encoder in real-time. More details can be found on Saimon’s project page.

MCC 128

Measurement Computing Corporation has announced the MCC 128, a SAM G55-powered voltage measurement DAQ HAT for the Raspberry Pi. The board features 16-bit resolution and multiple analog input ranges — eight single-ended or four differential-ended analog inputs with sample rates up to 100 kS/s. Up to eight MCC 128 devices can be stacked, providing up to 64 channels of data and a maximum throughput of 320 kS/s.

LoRa Button/Interrupt Node

Tindie seller IoTDevices has launched a tiny, Arduino-compatible LoRaWAN node controlled by an ATmega328P. The board’s function is to send a message whenever a button is pressed or it wakes up from an interrupt.  

CANFD-Zero HAT
First spotted on Twitter, generationmake’s CANFDZeroHAT is a Raspberry Pi HAT designed around a MCP2518FD CAN FD controller. Though details are a bit limited, be sure to check out the HAT on GitHub.

Lux & Air Sensor Board

Initially made for a home automation project, Sinclair’s Arduino-like board is built around an ATmega328P with a ROHM HB1750 lux sensor, a BME280 temperature and humidity sensor, and a pair of 0-10V outputs. The board also implements an LM358 op-amp, which is controlled by a MCP4922 DAC. More information is available on its Tindie store page, where it’s selling for $60.

TinyMoisture
No green thumb? No problem, thanks to TinyMoisure! Stefan Wagner has devised a simple, ATtiny13-based sensor that monitors the soil moisture of plants every eight seconds and gives a short alarm so you never water them again.

Bike Flasher
Cycling at night can be dangerous. Having lights on your bike can help — even better if they come on automatically! Jeremy Cook’s ATtiny85 board does just that by strapping to wheel spokes and flashing as you start to move. 

Tic-Tac-Toe Business Card

While in the process of applying to internships, electrical and computer engineer Ryan Chan decided to build a PCB business card to stand out. But just not any PCB business card, one capable of playing a game of tic-tac-toe! Its display is made up of 18 LEDs organized into nine segments where there is a blue and red light in place of the traditional X and O. There is a single button that the player uses to control where they will place their mark. The board is powered via its micro-USB port and the brains of the operation is an ATmega328P-AU in a TQFP package.

DogDuino?
We’ve all seen plenty of uniquely-shaped Arduino clones, though Hugo Hu has come up with the first in a corgi form factor. Sharing the same pinout as the Nano, the doggy ‘duino is outfitted with an ATmega328P, a CH340C USB-to-serial chip, and a USB-B THT connector. If you’re as interested as we were, you’ll want to check out Hu’s element14 post.

Stay ahead with the latest hardware trends. Explore how makers are applying these innovations in real-world projects at Microchip Makes page.

Want to see more? Browse last month’s list here.