What Is The Best Arduino Board For a Beginner? Where Can I Get One?


Arduino UNO is the leading board, to begin with, in gadgets and coding. On the off chance that this is often your involvement tinkering with the board, the UNO is the foremost strong board and the most utilized and archived board of the entire Arduino family.

Arduino boards are quite famous among students, and millions of users around the world are using them to enhance their knowledge in coding and electronics. Arduino UNO, and Arduino MEGA are recommended boards for the beginners, and Arduino Nano can also be used in such projects where you don’t have much space.

With its popularity, these boards are easily available in the local market, and online where you can get a genuine and original board in less than $30.

What is an Arduino?

Arduino alludes to an open-source hardware board and it’s used to control things in real life scenarios. Arduino is planned to make hardware more available to artists, designers, specialists, and anyone curious about making intuitive objects. With the Arduino, you construct projects that can be associated along with your environment. The Arduino boards are fundamentally a device for controlling hardware.

Is Arduino open-source hardware?

Arduino, a microcontroller board, is an open-source hardware board based on easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s expected for anybody making intuitive projects. Arduino faculties the environment by getting inputs from various sensors and influences its environment by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators.

Types of Arduino

There are different Arduino boards showing below

  • Arduino Uno (R3)
  • Arduino Nano
  • Arduino Mega (R3) Board
  • Arduino Leonardo Board
  • Arduino Robot
  • Arduino Esplora
  • Arduino Pro Mic
  • Arduino Ethernet
  • Arduino Zero
  • Arduino Micro
  • Arduino Due
  • LilyPad Arduino Board
  • Arduino Bluetooth
  • Arduino Diecimila
  • RedBoard Arduino Board
  • Fastest Arduino Board

What is Arduino UNO R3?

Arduino-uno-with-white-backgroundArduino Uno is the foremost habitually utilized board and it is the standard frame separated from all the existing Arduino boards. This board is exceptionally valuable for beginners.

The Arduino UNO R3, a microcontroller board, that is quite famous within the family of an Arduino.

In case of any damage or any casualties, you have an advantage of changing the microcontroller without buying the entire board.

The most highlights of this board primarily incorporate it; it is available in Plunge (dual-inline-package), detachable and ATmega328 microcontroller. The programming of this board can effortlessly be stacked by utilizing an Arduino computer program. This board has a colossal bolster from the Arduino community, which can make an awfully straightforward way to begin working in inserted gadgets, and numerous more applications.

Features of Arduino UNO

  • It has an ATmega328P based Microcontroller
  • This Arduino operates at 5V
  • Its optimum voltage ranges from 7V to 12V
  • IT has 14 digital I/O pins
  • Digital input & output pins (PWM)-6
  • Analog i/p pins are 6
  • DC Current for each I/O Stick is 20 mA
  • DC Current utilized for 3.3V Stick is 50 mA
  • Flash Memory -32 KB and 0.5 KB memory is utilized by the boot loader
  • SRAM is 2 KB
  • EEPROM is 1 KB
  • The speed of the Arduino CLK is 16 MHz
  • In-Built LED Length and width of the Arduino are 68.6 mm X 53.4 mm
  • The weight of the Arduino board is 25 g

Cost and Where Can I Get One?

Price vary from company to company and brand to brand, but ideally you can get an Arduino UNO R3 under $30.

Buy Arduino UNO R3

Uses of Arduino UNO

  • Arduino Uno is used in Do-it-Yourself projects and prototyping.
  • In creating projects based on code-based control Development of Robotization System
  • Designing of fundamental circuit designs. Thus, usually, all are almost Arduino Uno datasheets.

You are able to conclude that typically an 8-bit ATmega328P microcontroller. It has diverse components like serial communication, oscillator, and a voltage controller for supporting the microcontroller. This board incorporates a USB association, computerized I/O pins-14, analog i/p pins-6, a power-barrel jack, a reset button, and an ICSP header.

Recommended Reading: Arduino UNO R3 is famous among the Arduino family, and students. If you want to know more details about the Arduino UNO R3 then this guide about Arduino UNO would be a gold mine for you, and it would help you in selecting the right board.

Arduino Leonardo R3

Arduino-leonardo

The Arduino Leonardo is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega32u4 (datasheet). It has 20 advanced input/output pins (of which 7 can be utilized as PWM yields and 12 as analog inputs), a 16 MHz gem oscillator, a small-scale USB association, a control jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button.

It contains everything required to bolster the microcontroller; essentially interface it to a computer with a USB cable or control it with an AC-to-DC connector or battery to induce a starter.

The Leonardo contrasts from all going before sheets in that the ATmega32u4 has built-in USB communication, eliminating the requirement for an auxiliary processor. This permits Leonardo to see an associated computer as a mouse and console, in expansion to a virtual (CDC) serial / COM harbor.

Features of Arduino Leonardo R3

  • Input and voltage of Arduino Leonardo R3 is 7V-12V
  • Its operating voltage is between 2.7V-5.5V
  • 12 analog input pins and seven (PWM) outputs
  • 32kB flash memory
  • 1kB EEPROM
  • 2.5kB SRAM
  • 40mA per I/O pin current (DC)
  • Its clock speed is 16MHZ
  • Dimension of Arduino leonardo (LXW) is 68.6mm x 53.3mm
  • The weight of Arduino Leonardo is 20g

Uses of Arduino Leonardo R3

Taking after are a few major applications Arduino can be utilized for

  • Industrial Automation
  • Health and Security Systems
  • Creating remote keyboard
  • Automatic Pill Dispenser
  • Embedded Systems
  • Student Projects
  • USB Trackpad
  • Water Level Meter

Cost and Where Can I Get It?

Cost of Arduino Leonardo is $30.

Buy Arduino Leonardo R3 from Amazon

Recommended Reading: You must have read about Arduino UNO and Arduino Leonardo boards so far. Confused? Don’t worry, a comparison guide about Leonardo and UNO would help you to select your board.

Arduino MEGA

Arduino mega with white background

Arduino Mega 2560 is a Microcontroller board based on Atmega2560. It comes with more memory space and I/O pins as compared to other boards accessible within the market. There are 54 computerized I/O pins and 16 analog pins consolidated on the board that makes this gadget interesting and stands out from others.

Out of 54 advanced I/O, 15 are utilized for PWM (beat width modulation). An oscillator of 16MHz recurrence is added to the board. This board comes with a USB cable harbor that’s utilized to associate and exchange code from the computer to the board. DC control jack is coupled with the board that’s utilized to power the board.

A few forms of the Arduino board needs this highlight like Arduino Master Smaller than

expected doesn’t come with a DC control jack. ICSP header may be a surprising expansion to Arduino Mega which is utilized for programming the Arduino and uploading the code from the computer.

This board comes with two voltage controllers i.e. 5V and 3.3V which gives the adaptability to control the voltage as per prerequisites as compared to Arduino Professional Scaled-down which comes with as it were one voltage regulator.

Features of Arduino Mega

  • High Perseverance Non-volatile Memory Segments Write/Erase Cycles
  • 10,000 Flash
  • Atmel QTouch library support
  • JTAG (IEEE std. 1149.1 compliant) interface

Peripheral Features

  • Real-time Counter with Partitioned Oscillator Programmable
  • Guard dog Clock with Partitioned On-chip Oscillator On-chip
  • Analog Comparator Interrupt and Wake-up on Stick Charge

Other uncommon features

  • Power-on Reset and Programmable Brown-out Detection
  • Internal Calibrated Oscillator
  • External and Inner Hinder Sources Six Rest Modes:
  • Sit out of gear, ADC Clamor Diminishment, Power-save, Power-down, Standby, and Amplified Standby

Parametric

  • Arduino Mega shows Flash Program type
  • Program size of Arduino Mega is 256
  • Arduino Mega has 16 (MIPS/DMIPS)
  • Arduino Mega has 8192 KB SRAM
  • Arduino Mega has 100 pins
  • It has only 1 comparator
  • Temperature ranges from -40 to 85
  • Operating voltage ranges from 1.8 to 5.5V

Applications of Arduino Mega

Arduino Mega 2560 is a perfect choice for ventures requiring more memory space to utilize with more number pins on the board. Taking after are most applications of the Arduino Mega boards.

  • Developing 3D printer
  • Controlling and taking care of more than one motors
  • Interfacing of number of sensors
  • Sensing and identifying temperature
  • Water level discovery projects
  • Home mechanization and security systems
  • Embedded Systems
  • IoT applications
  • Parallel programming
  • Multitasking

Cost and Where Can I Get It?

Cost of Arduino is $30

Buy Arduino MEGA from Amazon

Recommended Reading: This is so far the best board with an additional digital input and output pins that would help you in your projects. If you want to know the more details about technical and pin description, give this Arduino MEGA article a read.

Arduino Nano

Arduino-nano

Arduino Nano is a Microcontroller board created by Arduino.cc and based on Atmega328p / Atmega168. Arduino sheets are broadly utilized in mechanical technology, implanted frameworks, mechanization, and gadget ventures. These sheets were at first presented for understudies and non-technical clients but these days Arduino boards are broadly utilized in mechanical projects.

It offers the same network and specs of the Arduino Uno board in a smaller shape factor. The Arduino Nano is prepared with 30 male I/O headers, in a DIP30-like setup, which can be modified utilizing the Arduino Program coordinates improvement environment (IDE), which is common to all Arduino sheets and runs both online and offline. The board can be powered through a type-B micro-USB cable or from a 9 V battery.

Features of Arduino Nano

  • The operating Voltage of Arduino Nano is 5 V
  • Input Voltage should be 7-12 V
  • The input Voltage of Arduino Nano is 6-20 V
  • Digital I/O Pins of Arduino Nano is 14
  • Analog Input Pins of Arduino Nano is 8
  • Flash Memory 32 KB
  • SRAM is 2 KB
  • EEPROM is 1 KB
  • Clock Speed is 16 MHz
  • Dimensions of the Arduino Nano board is 0.73″ x 1.70″

Cost and Where Can I Get It?

Cost of Arduino Nano is under $25

Buy Arduino Nano from Amazon

Application of Arduino Nano

These sheets are utilized to construct Arduino Nano projects by perusing contributions of a sensor, a button, or a finger and yields a yield by turning the engine or Drove ON, or and a portion of the applications are recorded beneath.

  • Tests of electronic frameworks and items
  • Mechanization
  • A few Do-It-Yourself projects
  • Control Frameworks
  • Inserted Frameworks
  • Mechanical technology
  • Instrumentation

Consequently, this is an outline of the Arduino nano datasheet. From the above data, at last, we can presume that for the novices who are new to gadgets, this Nano board is incredibly recommended to go for this board because of its provisions like minimal expense and exceptionally ease to use in various applications. This board can basically interface with any PC all through its little USB port.

Arduino Lilypad

Lillypad-arduino

Arduino LilyPad is an Arduino Primary Board that’s primarily outlined for e-textiles and wearables ventures and is based on the Atmega168/Atmega328 microcontroller. LilyPad is nothing but an Arduino-programmed microcontroller and works comparatively to other Arduino sheets available. It comes in a circular shape not at all like other Arduino sheets so that it might fit effortlessly in wearables.

However, the capacity of this board to be sewn down with the texture or sensor through conductive string puts it ahead and stands out of the boards accessible within the Arduino community. There are 22 wide open pin-holes, showing up around the edge of the completely adjusted shape that’s basically utilized for the association with the texture and sensor through a conductive thread. Out of these 22 pinholes, one is saved for +5V, and one for ground.

Features of Arduino LilyPad

Here are some amazing features of Arduino LilyPad

  • Arduino LilyPad uses a microcontroller of ATmega168 or ATmega328V
  • Arduino LilyPad has 14 digital pins
  • Arduino LilyPad has 6 analog input
  • Arduino LilyPad has 6 PWM channels
  • Arduino LilyPad has 8MHZ of crystal oscillator
  • Arduino LilyPad has 16KB of flash memory
  • It has 1 KB of SRAM and 512 bytes of EEPROM
  • Its operating voltage is 2 to 5V

Applications of Arduino LilyPad

  • LilyPad is truly exceptionally helpful for e-textile and wearable items, since of its little size.
  • The Arduino Lilypad is utilized in IoT items and implanted ventures as well.
  • The circular tabs covering the entire Cushion at the edge are primarily utilized for the association between Cushion and wearable items.

Cost and Where Can I Get It?

Arduino Lilypad cost is under $20.

Buy Arduino Lilypad from Amazon

Red board Arduino board

 

The SparkFun RedBoard is an Arduino-compatible improvement stage that empowers quick-and-easy project prototyping. It can associate with real-world sensors, control engines, show data, and perform near-instantaneous calculations. It empowers anybody to form interesting, clever ventures like a two-wheel buggy, custom music boxes, and dice gauntlets.

The RedBoard also serves as a great physical computing learning stage. I have outlined the RedBoard to be as easy to use as possible. It can be utilized to instruct both programming and hardware concurrently — two aptitudes that are getting to be essentially critical in today’s high-tech world.

Features of Red board Arduino board

  • ATmega328 microcontroller with Optiboot (UNO) bootloader
  • USB programming facilitated by the FTDI FT231X chip
  • Input voltage: 7–15V
  • 32K flash memory
  • Clock speed: 16 MHz
  • R3 shield compatible
  • 0–5V outputs with 3.3V compatible inputs
  • 14 digital I/O pins (6 PWM outputs)
  • 6 analog inputs
  • 1 ISP header

Cost and Where Can I Get It?

Buy Arduino Red board from Amazon

What things can you do with Arduino?

You’re an ardent hardware partner like me who cherishes playing with complex components to produce something one of a kind out of them, welcome to this directory.

I have picked some of the crazy Arduino projects for both tenderfoot and ingenious engineers alike. Select one that sparkles your interest and jumps into that right absence. We outline the 15 best Arduino ventures to boost your varied travel into the enchanted field of hardware authenticity.

  • Build a Tiny Weather Display System.
  • Build a Motion-Triggered Night Lamp for Using Under Your Bed.
  • Build a System for Muting Any Phrase You Want on TV.
  • Build an Ambilight Sensor for Your LCD Display.
  • Build a Fingerprint Scanner for Your Garage Door Opener.
  • Build a Robotic Arm.
  • Build a Fully Functional Computer Control Panel
  • Build a robot car
  • Build a Clone of the Popular Flappy Bird Game
  • Build a personalized alarm system
  • Build a Quadruped Using Arduino
  • Build a Kaleidoscope Infinity Mirror
  • Build an Autonomous “Follow Me” Cooler
  • Build a Gesture Control with Arduino
  • Build a Smoke Detection System Using the MQ-2 Gas Sensor

How to select the right Arduino Board?

different arduino boards

As Arduino is an open-source stage, anybody can make Arduino consistent sheets. Numerous such boards are accessible within the showcase, just like the FreeDuino and NetDuino. One way to distinguish between unique boards and consistent models is to hunt for the exchange title on the board. The title Arduino is trademarked and saved for sheets made from the first obvious company in Italy.

All compatible Arduino boards utilize a distinctive but similar exchange title like Freeduino, Netduino, etc. In case you need a cheaper elective of the Arduino, you’ll continuously purchase the clone sheets.

Arduino Uno or Smaller than expected can be chosen for little and basic Arduino ventures depending upon your measure and fetched limits. Or on the off chance that you’ve got a requirement for a more prominent number of pins or serial communication gadgets to be processed with the same controller you’ll go for the Arduino Mega. And for a beginner, the Arduino Uno is the foremost prescribed board to induce.

Arduino Boards comparison

System Voltage Clock Speed Digital I/O Analog Inputs PWM UART Programming Interface Cost
Arduino UNO 5V 16MHz 14 6 6 1 USB via ATMega16U2 $29.95
Arduino Leonardo 5V 16MHz 20* 12 7 1 Native USB $24.95
Arduino Mega 5V 16MHz 54 16 14 4 USB via ATMega16U2 $58.95
Arduino Nano 5V 16MHz 14 8 6 1 FTDI-Compatible Header $33.95
Arduino LilyPad 3.3V 8MHz 14 6 6 1 FTDI-Compatible Header $21.95
Arduino Redboard 5V 16MHz 14 6 6 1 USB via FTDI $24.95

Mataf Khan

An electronics enthusiasts from childhood became an electrical engineer, I've been playing with Arduino and other electronics gadgets like raspberry pi since when I was 14. and have a passion of troubleshooting Arduino problems.

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