DimeDuino Is a Coin-Sized, Ultra-Thin, Arduino-Compatible Board Built on a Flex PCB
Built on an ultra-thin flexible substrate, AtomSoftTech's DimeDuino is an extremely compact board with a clever castellated edge.
AtomSoftTech's Jason Lopez has unveiled a new Arduino-compatible development board: The DimeDuino is not only roughly the size of a dime, but it's built using a flexible PCB substrate.
"Yes, I'm at it again with the Arduino family," Lopez writes. "I focus a lot on Arduino because of its popularity and how easy it is to use. This time around i give you the DimeDuino."
"It's a Flex PCB based which utilizes the ATmega328P. Using this MCU allows for the installation of the Arduino bootloader — hence the 'Duino' in the name. These will come pre-programmed with the bootloader. One portion of the circle is just for programming. There is a GND, VCC,RXI, TXO and DTR & RST depending on your programmer."
The DimeDuino uses a Microchip ATmega328P microcontroller running at 8MHz and 3.3V or 16MHz and 5V, and brings out 20 input/output pins to castellated pads around the edge of the board. These include one UART, one SPI, and one I2C bus, six pulse-width modulation (PWM) pins, and 14 general-purpose pins. A user LED is connected to pin D13, as on a traditional Arduino board, and a green LED confirms power status.
The attractive coin-shaped PCB is extremely thin, built as it is on OSH Park's Flex PCB process — meaning the underlying flexible Panasonic Felios polyimide substrate measures just 0.1mm thick, plus the copper, soldermask, and silkscreen layers. Held up to the light, the PCB turns translucent — showing off the copper traces Lopez has laid down.
Full details on the project are available on the AtomSoftTech website, where Lopez has confirmed he will announce when boards are available to purchase.