Whereas many people do use them in our remaining initiatives, the true objective of an Arduino is as a growth board. The important thing phrase there may be “growth,” because it contains all the supplementary {hardware} essential to create a prototype with a microcontroller. You don’t, for instance, want so as to add your individual USB serial chip — the Uno R3 has one in-built. The engineers at Arduino included the parts that they thought most individuals would need, however the checklist is way from complete. That’s why Polia31 designed their very own customized Arduino with all the options they need in a growth board.

Polia31’s “Axiometa Spark” growth board has a footprint and pin structure appropriate with Arduino Uno R3 shields. It additionally has the identical Microchip ATmega328P microcontroller because the Arduino Uno R3. However many of the similarities finish there, as Polia31 fully revised the {hardware} and added new parts to go well with their wants.

Beginning with probably the most visually apparent distinction, the Axiometa Spark has triple rows of pin header holes. That makes it simpler to attach a number of parts to the identical pins with out utilizing a breadboard. Polia31 additionally addressed one of the irritating qualities of the Arduino Uno R3: the USB port. The usual Uno R3 has a USB-B port that everybody hates, as a result of no one makes use of USB-B cables for anything. So Polia31 changed that with a USB-C port that all of us love.

There’s additionally fairly a little bit of extra {hardware} to assist new options, like an interrupt-supported person button, two additional I2C ports, an LDR (light-dependent resistor), a devoted energy change, a number of standing LEDs (energy, PWM, exercise, RX, and TX), and a battery connector. Polia31 even improved the ability regulator, so the Axiometa Spark can reliably provide 1A at 3.3V and 1A at 5V.

Whether or not or not the Axiometa Spark’s options could be helpful relies upon completely in your initiatives, however we expect that there’s a lot to love right here. Extra importantly, this illustrates a really engaging thought: that anybody can design their very own growth board with the options that matter to them.

If you happen to like Polia31’s design, the Axiometa Spark is on the market at a really affordable €19.99. This undertaking can be open supply, so you need to use the documentation and information on the Axiometa web site to construct your individual Spark growth board.