Single Board Solutions' Cricket ONE Puts an Arduino Into the Raspberry Pi Zero Form Factor

Single Board Solutions has launched a device that bridges two worlds: an Arduino-compatible microcontroller development board in the form factor of a Raspberry Pi Zero single-board computer.

"The Cricket ONE is an Arduino-compatible ATmega328PB board using the MiniCore Arduino core," the company explains. "The board is mechanically compatible with the Raspberry Pi Zero, and is able to use a large number of [Raspberry Pi] accessory boards."

The design, certainly, mimics that of the popular low-cost Raspberry Pi Zero family: The unpopulated 40-pin header is present and correct at the top of the board, while a single micro-USB port provides power and data connectivity. Missing, of course, is the USB Host port, the CSI camera port, and the mini-HDMI port for video and audio — and there's a reset button added on to the side.

The board uses an ATmega328PB microcontroller, boasting four more general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins and extra UART, SPI, and timer functionality over the more common ATmega328P. Its use of the MiniCore Arduino core, meanwhile, frees up two GPIO pins if using the part's internal oscillator — and also comes with a tweaked version of the Optiboot firmware allow for flash writing from within a running application.

The company has not yet released the design files for the Cricket ONE, but has published an initial page covering the product on its website; it has also begun selling a limited quantity of beta boards on its Tindie store, priced at $7 with a silkscreened pinout which does not include the four additional GPIO pins.