Except for the Arduino Zero, which is in the traditional Arduino Uno R3 footprint, all other ARM-based Arduino boards are in either the Nano or the MKR footprints. Apart from size, what sets these apart is the type of connector used for the pins: instead of sockets mounted on the top of the board, as… Continue reading The Nano and MKR footprints

Arduino boards based on the SAMD21 microcontroller (indicated above by ARM Cortex-M0+) can configure a USB port in the Host mode. This means that rather than being a dumb device, subject to the whims of the USB Host, your SAMD21-based Arduino can be a USB Host initiating transactions with USB devices such as a keyboard… Continue reading USB Host

Although all Arduinos support the analogWrite() function, in “Controlling Light with PWM” you learned that Arduino simulates an analog voltage by using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). This works fine to control the brightness of LEDs and the speed of motors, but sometimes you might need a true analog voltage. In that case, the ARM-based boards are ideal… Continue reading Digital to Analog Converter

In “Driving Bigger Loads (Motors, Lamps, and the Like)”. We learned that each pin on an Arduino should be used for at most 20 milliamps. Checking on the Arduino website for “DC Current per I/O Pin” under “Tech Specs”, we find that for all Arduino boards based on the SAMD21 microcontroller (indicated above by ARM… Continue reading Drive Current

In contrast to the Arduino Uno, which operates at 5 V, all of the ARM boards operate at 3.3 volts, so they will run off a single cell rechargeable Li-Ion or Li-Po battery. Some of the boards, such as the MKR WIFI 1010 and the MKR WAN 1310, include a battery connector and charging circuitry… Continue reading Operating Voltage

Some of these boards have other special features. The Arduino MKR Zero has an I2S port and an SD card socket. I2S is a digital audio interface. With these capabilities, the MKR Zero can play and analyze audio files and can connect directly to other digital audio devices which support the I2S interface. In addition… Continue reading Special Features

Here we introduce the ARM family of Arduino boards. These boards use three variations of the ARM core: Cortex M0, Cortex M0+, and M4. The ARM Cortex M0 core was optimized for low cost as a 32 bit replacement for 8 bit microcontrollers. The Cortex M0+ was further optimized to reduce power and adds some… Continue reading Introducing the Arduino ARM based boards

The answer to this depends entirely on what you are trying to do. Generally speaking, AVR based systems will be less expensive and simpler to design and program. On the other hand, systems that require lots of memory and faster, more complex programs are likely to be better served with ARM based devices. If you… Continue reading Which is better: AVR or ARM?

There is no hard definitions and many devices blur the distinction, but these are general guidelines: A microcontroller is designed to be self-contained device that can be used to control a wide range of machines. In this context it is called an embedded controller. In addition to the processor, a microcontroller will include program and… Continue reading What’s the difference between a microcontroller and a microprocessor?