Arduino Celebrates 10 Million UNOs, Launches the Tiny Collectable Arduino UNO Mini Limited Edition
Major sales milestone gives birth to a compact UNO clone, finished in eye-catching black and gold — and even boasting castellated pins.
Arduino has announced a celebration of the classic Arduino UNO development board by launching an ultra-compact variant finished in stylish black, the Arduino UNO Mini Limited Edition.
"First and foremost, this is an UNO like any other," the Arduino team explains of its fresh new design. "It’s (almost) the same specs, with the same processor, pinouts and performance that made the UNO so popular. But there are a couple of cool tweaks we think you’ll love."
The first tweak is immediately visible: The iconic Arduino color scheme has shifted to a black-and-gold finish, while the footprint of the board has shrunk to half the size of its predecessor — which does, of course, mean that the Arduino UNO Mini isn't directly compatible with shields designed for the original UNO, despite mimicking the infamous spacing of its pin headers. As well as female pin headers, the board includes unpopulated pin headers and castellated pins on its edges — making it surface-mountable as a module, should anyone wish to solder it down.
Another tweak is a shift to USB Type-C, in place of full-size USB Type-B. Elsewhere, the specifications are unchanged: It's driven by a Microchip ATmega328 eight-bit microcontroller running at 16MHz with 2kB of static RAM (SRAM), 32kB of flash, and 1kB of EEPROM, there are 14 digital input/output pins, of which six support pulse-width modulation (PWM) and six analog inputs. The board runs at a 5V logic level, and can be driven from an input voltage between 6-20V — or from its USB Type-C connector.
"The iconic board, which first launched back in 2010, has become synonymous with Arduino itself," the Arduino team writes of the original Uno. It’s like the company and the board are inextricably linked in the minds of makers around the world. For many, Arduino is the UNO. The UNO has now sold over 10 million units. So we wanted something super cool to celebrate this new maker board milestone. And that something is the UNO Mini Limited Edition."
Arduino hasn't confirmed just how limited the Arduino UNO Mini Limited Edition is, but is accepting pre-orders for the board at $45 on the Arduino Store while supplies last. All orders include individual serial numbers and collectable packaging, with an insert featuring the signatures of Arduino team.