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:: Hardware & Related Initiatives ::
Arduino-compatible hardware, related initiatives, and other microcontroller platforms.

Arduino and Arduino-Compatible Hardware

Official Arduino hardware

For information on the official Arduino hardware, see the main hardware page, the guide to getting started with Arduino, or the index of the official Arduino hardware.

Arduino-compatible hardware

The Arduino community is especially interested in tracking and propagating variant do it yourself, and homebrew Arduino-compatible efforts to help others create their own boards. Post links to projects which you know about here.

Making your own hardware and Arduino trademark issues

So you want to make an Arduino: guidelines and information for interested parties
Arduino Trademark Dispute
open source forum thread
Freeduino forum thread

Shields

How to design and build Arduino shields, complete boards that add a layer to the arduino.

(Items in this area may be listed here, as well as have as in a specific sections of Interfacing With Hardware)

  • Critical Velocity LCD Shield, an open source shield that allows you to easily connect a character LCD to the Arduino. Also includes a speaker, a push button and prototyping space.
  • rMP3 Playback Shield - Play sounds/music and read/write data from SD cards.
  • TellyMate Shield - TV-Out from your Arduino. Uses the serial output of the Arduino to control a 38x25 character display on a PAL or NTSC TV.
  • ButtonShield, a shield with 32 buttons, mode A and mode B, a space bar, and a shift key with dual inline LEDs. It lets you turn the Arduino into a handheld, portable microcontroller computer, or gadget. It is controlled over serial and comes with libraries, and is paid for by the Open Source Hardware Bank.
  • Propellurino, a shield with open source software for the Arduino with a multicore prozessor. It has different interfaces like ps/2 mouse or keyboard, midi in, 2 channel analog out, VGA connector and additional I/O ports. It allows you to use as a synthesizer, display data on a VGA screen an many other things. The Arduino controls the functions of the shield.
  • 6-pack, an open-source shield for the Arduino that allows you to connect six sliders to the analog input pins.
  • Bjoern Hartman has published the Eagle PCB files for a shield that lets you easily use Phidget sensors with the Arduino
  • Eagle files for an L293-based Arduino motor driver shield.
  • Liquidware ExtenderShield - Put 2 shields on the Arduino at once (Wide) or (Tall)
  • Adafruit Servo/Stepper/DC Motor shield - A shield that can control 2 hobby servos and up to 2 unipolar/bipolar stepper motors or 4 bi-directional DC motors.
  • SID-emulator was developed by c. haberer and SGMK to use the arduino to control a SID-emulator chip and create old-school 8-bit sounds and lo-fi musical instruments.
  • Battery Shield - A shield from Liquidware that connects to the back of the Arduino, with a USB-rechargable lithium ion battery that can power an Arduino for 14-28 hours depending on the circuit
  • MEGA Battery Pack - One of the first shields for the Arduino Mega, that gives it between 15-27 hours of battery life in a lithium-ion battery that is rechargeable over USB
  • Prototyping shields: These boards are generic shields for building small prototyping circuits. One has a solderless breadboard and the other has a grid of solder holes. Details
  • Protoshield - Copyleft files for making your own Arduino protoshield.
  • Also, see todbot's DIY breadboard shield
  • Adafruit prototyping shield - A prototyping shield for Arduino.
  • DMX shield.
  • Liquidware InputShield - A shield with two buttons, a joystick, and an A-B selector switch for making games or controlling robots.
  • Adafruit XPort/Ethernet shield - Allows use of an XPort module for connecting to the Internet as a client or server.
  • RFIDShield: Connects ID-12 or ID-20 RFID readers to an Arduino. Contact me at sanctitiesrares@gmail.com if you want one.
  • RFIDuino - Reads and writes 13.56MHz ISO-14443A (Mifare) RFID tags. Available as an easy-to-solder kit, through-hole only. RFIDuino mounts upside-down on top of a Arduino, and has an integrated antenna. Mounting hardware included.
  • Liquidware TouchShield OLED touch screen shield.
  • TriangleShield Triangular shaped wedges to rotate other shields 45 degrees off the Arduino.
  • Adafruit Wave shield - Plays any size 22KHz audio files from an SD memory card for music, effects and interactive sound art
  • Adafruit GPS & Datalogging shield - Connects up a GPS module and can log location, time/date as well as sensor data to an SD memory flash card.
  • Simple Arduino Proto Shield Single Sided - This is a simple prototyping shield single sided for Arduino NG/Diecimila. No ISP connector, no reset button, and no leds. The advantage this board is not occupy space with something that you will not use.
  • TouchShield Slide Widescreen OLED touch screen shield for the Arduino with 320x240 resolution and runs Processing graphics commands.
  • Arduino Shield Scaffold - Eagle CAD schematic and PCB files with just the basic headers and Arduino outlines, a quick start for your own custom shield project.
  • Eagle Library with Arduino Shield as a Library Part for the Schematic and PCB - easy to use for your own Shield-designs created with the Eagle PCB Cad Software
  • TankShield - gives the Arduino dual addressable, PWM'd controlled tank treads with built in motor drivers. The Arduino snaps onto the backside of the TankShield, so other shields can be used on the robot
  • Eagle lib with Arduino pins/spacing and (working) 18S20 (Maxim 1-Wire temp sensor). Also a generic Arduino (Diecimila) shield with pads and labels ONLY. Also a 18S20 temp sensor schematic and board that can be daisy-chained with ordinary phone cables.
  • S65-Shield for Arduino Duemilanove or Diecimila. Hardware: 65536 colors / 132x176 pixel LCD, rotary encoder, microSD socket, expansion port for wireless transceiver
  • microSD module by http://libelium.com to read/write data from/to SD cards easily. Get the latest code by BlushingBoy
  • pHduino This is a pH meter using Arduino board for pH measurements with a glass electrode.
  • ServoShield The Renbotics ServoShield uses two 4017 decade counters to drive up to 16 servos using only 4 pins (digital pins 6 to 9) and as little as one 8bit timer (Timer 2) in standard mode or two 16/8bit timers (Timer 1 plus Timer 2 for Duemilanove and Timer 3 for Mega) in high accuracy mode.
  • MuxShield The Mux (Multiplexer) Shield adds the capacity for up to 48 analog or digital inputs or outputs on the Arduino and Arduino Mega using three analog multiplexers. Example code also given.
  • Random Number Generator RNG shield The RNG shield is designed using free software KiCad to generate wide spectrum white noise suitable for sampling and later use as a source or seed for random number generation. Example code given.
  • Plug Shield The Plug Shield can connect multiple I2C-based JeePlugs to the Arduino. On-board 3.3V level converter. Works with the Wire library (example).

Hardware for connecting to Arduino / Freeduino

  • RobotShop Rover This is a small, compact, indoor tracked mobile platform designed specifically around the Arduino Diecimilla/Duemilanove. Users can customize their rover and add shields to increase the functionality. The rover includes a servo pan and tilt and everything you need to get started.
  • Bhasha Technologies FTDI USB Adapter, simple single sided designed adapter connects to Arduino/Freeduino/Sanguino and variants..Cheap and Cost Effective
  • FTDI USB to TTL cable
  • Wulfden/Modern Device P4/P4B RS232 to TTL serial adapter, can be used to communicate with or upload sketches to;
    • generic bread-boarded or hand-wired Arduino
    • Modern Device BBB and RBBB(A)
    • AdaFruit Industries Breaduino
    • Sparkfun LilyPad Arduino
    • Pololu Arduino-ized Orangutan Robot Controller
  • NKC RS232 to TTL serial adapter
  • Inverter reference design
  • Sparkfun RS232 to TTL board
  • USB/ZigBee Converter

Related Initiatives

  • Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. Processing helped inspire Arduino and provides the code base for the Arduino environment.

  • Fritzing is an open-source initiative to support designers and artists to take the step from physical prototyping to actual product. They are creating software to help document circuits and turn them into PCB layouts for manufacturing.

  • EduWear is an EU-funded project that uses Arduino and electronic textiles to introduce children to programming and electronics. They've created a visual programming environment for programming Arduino boards.

Other Microcontroller Platforms

Other projects similar to Arduino, for inspiration, comparison, and collaboration. Please add comments and other platforms. Also see the AVR Freaks list for more (click on "Development Boards"). And SparkFun also sells lots of development board (including Arduino).

I use reed relays connected directly to the 12 IO pins. 5v/500ohm=10mA each, Part# '22RD 5', 10+ @ US$1.10 each

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