Mouser Electronics Whitepaper

Arduino
The journey continues
Mark Patrick, Mouser Electronics
 Mouser Electronics Whitepaper

IDE itself is based on Processing. Key to Arduino’s success has been

The beginnings of Arduino the seamless way in which both hardware and software have been
tightly integrated.
The electronics industry is no stranger to innovation. There are
probably hundreds of new products launched every day – some are
iterative releases of product lines already in production, while others Arduino’s broad appeal
announce a completely new technology. Their success, as with
any product, tends to depend on a complex mix of market needs, Arduino has a very broad appeal – from learning the basics of how
timeliness and luck. When the open-source microcontroller-based to program a microcontroller to blink an LED on and off, to more
development platform Arduino launched in 2005, there was certainly sophisticated projects used to control scientific instruments in a
a market need, and the timing couldn’t have been better. chemistry lab. Teachers and students embrace it, musicians and
artists bring their ideas to life with it, and architects build interactive
models with it. There was clearly a need when Arduino launched, but
its success is also partly due to the timing of the launch. The Maker
community, a global unstructured collective of hobbyists and DIY
electronics enthusiasts with open-source concepts at its roots, was
just starting to form. Over the years interest in playing with electronics
as a hobby had waned. Arduino filled a void, and was immediately
accessible and affordable to those who wanted to tinker, play and
learn.

Continued evolution
As interest in Arduino has grown, so has the range of boards
available. The original 8-bit Atmel AVR (now Microchip) based design
Figure 1: One of the early Arduino boards, the Arduino Duemilanove. is still available as the Arduino Uno, but there are now more powerful
(Source Arduino.cc) boards such as the specialist FPGA-based Arduino MKR Vidor 4000.
Another factor that has contributed to Arduino’s success is that from
The design of the first 8-bit Arduino board came out of the need the start it was open source, so the PCB design and schematics were
to create a simple, complete, plug-and-play microcontroller board all readily available under Creative Commons licence. Companies
on which students at the Ivrea Interaction Design Institute in Italy such as Adafruit have developed their own versions of the board, but
could base their product prototypes without needing a background have used the Arduino IDE for design simplicity and familiarity. From
in electronics. Arduino was certainly not the first microcontroller the beginning Arduino established a standard pin-out configuration
development platform; many others were already commercially to enable interaction with the real world. That format has spawned
available, but they did not offer the completeness of features an industry of its own, creating expansion boards, termed shields,
or simplicity of design. Arduino not only provided the hardware which plug into Arduino and third-party Arduino-compatible boards.
prototyping platform, but also included a comprehensive integrated Established electronics component manufacturing companies have

Figure 2: The comprehensive Arduino IDE. (Source Mouser) Figure 3: Collection of Arduino boards. (Source Arduino.cc)

software development environment to create and program the also embraced the popularity of Arduino by developing their own
board’s microcontroller. Arduino’s software development tools, shields as prototyping boards for their range of devices, be they
available for Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X and Linux, were sensors, MEMS devices or wireless communications chips. This
assembled from trusted products that were already in use – these approach saves the manufacturer significant NRE costs associated
being Wiring, used as the Arduino’s programming language, while the with developing and maintaining a custom evaluation board and
 Mouser Electronics Whitepaper

makes the design accessible to anyone with an Arduino. An example On-Board Connectivity: The onboard radio module enables WiFi
is the multi-sensor development platform from Azoteq. and BLUETOOTH® connectivity simultaneously. The WiFi interface
can operate in different modes: either as an Access Point, or as a
Station. It can also operate as a dual-mode simultaneous AP/STA
The latest Arduino boards and can handle up to a 65Mbps transfer rate. The Bluetooth interface

Provisioning communications continues to be an essential element of

any design. In the cloud-connected era of the Internet of Things (IoT)
and its industrial counterpart (IIoT), communications is at the very core
of an end-design. There are a wide variety of data communications
protocols available, from power-hungry short-range WiFi that is ideal
for sending large volumes of data, to the ultra-low-power long-range
Sigfox and LoRa methods that suit sending small and infrequent data
packets.

As applications become more complex and sophisticated, the

need to ease communications, provide management of the board’s
environment and run concurrent tasks has led Arduino to launch a
platform that uses the open-source Linux operating system. Already
used on the popular Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black single-
board computers, the Arduino Yún, initially introduced in 2013 and
Figure 4: Arduino Portenta H7 (Source Arduino.cc)
integrating an Atmel AVR microcontroller with an Atheros AR9331
Linux wireless SoC, has recently received a major refresh of features
and capabilities. supports Bluetooth Classic and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). It’s also
Arduino now offers a comprehensive line-up of single-board possible to expose a series of different wired interfaces like UART,
computers that covers the complete range of current data SPI, Ethernet, or I2C, through some of the MKR style connectors, or
communication methods, including 2.4 GHz-based WiFi and through the new Arduino industrial 80-pin connector pair.
Bluetooth Low Energy, the 400 MHz and 900 MHz industrial, scientific
and medical (ISM) spectrum using LoRa and Sigfox, and licensed
Arduino MKR WIFI 1010
cellular systems GSM and LTE.
The Arduino MKR WIFI 1010 is designed to quickly and easily enable
WiFi connectivity for any Internet of Things application. Packaged in
Arduino Portenta H7 the standard MKR board/header format, and measuring 61.5 mm x
Arduino Portenta H7 is a new board designed for high-performance 25 mm, the board integrates a Microchip SAMD21 Cortex-M0+ 32-bit
applications. It features a dual-core unit with a 480MHz Arm® low-power ARM microcontroller, a u-blox NINA-W102 Espressif dual-
Cortex®-M7 and a 240MHz Arm Cortex M4. This allows the Portenta core ESP32-based 2.4 GHz wireless module with integrated antenna
to run high-level code languages with real-time tasks in parallel. capable of WiFi 802.11b/g/n and dual-mode Bluetooth v4.2, and a
Microchip ATECC508 SHA-256 cryptographic authentication IC. The
Two Parallel Cores: The H7 uses the dual-core STM32H747 as ATECC508 offloads cryptographic tasks from the main CPU, such as
its main processor. The two cores communicate via a Remote
Procedure Call mechanism that seamlessly allows calling functions
on the other processor. Both processors share all the on-chip
peripherals and can run:

• Arduino sketches on top of the Mbed OS

• Native Mbed applications
• MicroPython/JavaScript via an interpreter
• TensorFlow Lite - With TensorFlow™ Lite

One of the cores could compute a computer vision algorithm, while

the other handles low-level operations such as controlling a motor or
acting as a user interface.

Graphics Accelerator: The Portenta H7 can be used as a dedicated

embedded computer with a user interface by connecting it to an
external monitor. This is possible thanks to ST’s on-chip Graphics
Figure 5: Arduino MKR WIFI 1010. (Source Arduino)
Processing Unit (GPU), the Chrom-ART Accelerator™. Besides the
GPU, the chip includes a dedicated JPEG encoder and decoder.

A New Standard for Pinouts: The Portenta family adds two 80- those used to secure network communications via TLS. An onboard
pin high-density connectors at the bottom of the board ensuring 32.768 kHz real-time clock (RTC) provides the 48 MHz processor
scalability for a wide range of applications. clock. The MKR WIFI 1010 with its Cortex-M0+ MCU and the
 Mouser Electronics Whitepaper

NINA-W102 offers a number of power-saving modes and features, to +14 dBM. LoRa is aimed at IoT/IIoT sensors, utility meters and
providing an ideal prototyping platform for WiFi-based battery- actuator applications which are battery operated with a multi-year
powered IoT/IIoT applications. The wireless module can be switched lifetime, and securely send small amounts of encrypted data over long
off completely when not required, and also features a number of low- distances (over 10 km) a few times per hour.
power modes that assist in balancing power output and data rate for
optimal power consumption For low to medium production volumes Using the Arduino standard MKR board format, measuring 67.5
the complete board could also be embedded into the design. mm x 25 mm, and weighing only 32 grams, the MKR WAN 1310
comprises a Microchip SAMD1 ARM Cortex-M0+ 32-bit low-power
The board can be powered directly from its 5 VDC USB port or via microcontroller and a Murata CMWX1ZZABZ LoRa module. It also
a single rechargeable Li-Po 3.7 VDC cell. A Li-Po charging circuit is comes with the ECC508 crypto chip, a battery charger circuit, and
provided, allowing battery charging when connected to an external 2 MByte SPI Flash, as well as improved overall power consumption.
power source. Switching between power sources takes place With the inclusion of the onboard 2MByte Flash, Data logging and
automatically. other OTA (Over-the-Air) functions are now possible. The MKR WAN
1310 has the same peripheral features as the MKR WIFI 1010. In
A total of eight digital GPIO pins can be configured as input or output addition to downloading libraries for the board, the Arduino website
within software, and there are twelve pins capable of supporting has a number of tutorials that showcase connecting to, sending and
pulse width modulation (PWM) outputs. Serial communication options receiving data over the LoRa network. Prior to doing this you need
include one each of UART, SPI, I2C and I2S. There are a total of seven to set up an account with a LoRa network provider, of which Arduino
analog input pins for use with a switchable 8-, 10- or 12-bit ADC, and provides a tutorial to connect the MKR WAN 1310 to The Things
one 10-bit analog output pin. A total of six user LEDs are provided, Network (TTN).
and the MKR WIFI 1010 has 256 kB of Flash and 32 kB of SRAM.

As with all Arduino platforms, comprehensive getting started Arduino MKR FOX 1200
instructions, device drivers and libraries are accessible via the Arduino
IDE. Also, board-specific examples are automatically included when Similar to the MKR WAN 1310 but using the Sigfox network is the
you add the MKR WIFI 1010 board support package to your Arduino Arduino MKR FOX 1200. Like LoRa, Sigfox is a lightweight protocol
IDE using the Board Manager.

Arduino MKR WAN 1310

The Arduino MKR WAN 1310 is one of two Arduino boards that
have been designed specifically to prototype low-power, long-
range communication in the ISM 400 MHz, 800 MHz and 900 MHz
spectrum. The MKR WAN 1310 uses the LoRa low-power wide-area
network (LPWAN) protocol for sending relatively small amounts of
data across an extremely wide area. Using a chirp spread spectrum
approach in a star network architecture, a single LoRa gateway can
cover a whole city or an area of several hundred square kilometres.
Within Europe, the 867 to 869 MHz spectrum is reserved for ISM
communications, a total of ten channels being available for LoRaWAN

Figure 7: Arduino MKR FOX 1200 Sigfox board.

designed to handle small amounts of data, conserving energy

consumption and prolonging battery life. Sigfox has relatively low
transfer rates of either 100 or 600 bps, and an uplink payload of 12
bytes and downlink payload of 8 bytes.

Included with each MKR FOX 1200 is a free one-year Sigfox

subscription that allows up to 140 messages per day in addition to
free access to the geo-location service Spot’it. This service allows
you to track the board without the need for a GNSS/GPS receiver.
The board’s location is determined using a signal strength probability
model when the transmit signals are received at multiple points of
the Sigfox infrastructure. The MKR FOX 1200 has the standard MKR
Figure 6: Arduino MKR WAN 1310 for prototyping LoRa applications. functionality and uses a Microchip ATA8520 Sigfox module. Several
tutorials are available that showcase the steps involved in connecting
the board to the Sigfox network and sending data.
devices. Eight of these channels can use data rates from 250 bps
up to 5.5 kbps, also, there is a single 11 kbps channel and a single-
frequency shift-keying channel of 50 kbps. Output power is limited
 Mouser Electronics Whitepaper

Such speeds are significantly higher than the ISM protocols LoRa
Arduino MKR GSM 1400 and Sigfox yet NB-IoT offers a low-cost, long battery-life data
When it comes to sending larger amounts of data and provisioning communication approach. Also, compared to traditional cellular
a communications method that is usable globally without any connectivity, the wake-up and connection times are much faster,
reconfiguration or regional subscriptions, the cellular GSM network ensuring that power consumption is kept to a minimum. The MKR
is probably the only alternative. The new Arduino MKR GSM 1400 is NB-1500 is designed for global use with leading cellular providers
capable of working on all global 3G cellular networks including GSM such as Vodafone AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon – and, using LTE Cat
on 850 MHz, E-GSM on 1900 MHz, DCS on 1800 MHz and PCS M1 and NB1 bands, the board is ideal for use in a wide variety of
on 1900 MHz. The MKR GSM 1400 integrates a Microchip SAMD21 applications deployed in remote locations.
device, the same as other Arduino MKR boards, and a u-blox
The MKR NB-1500 offers all of the standard microcontroller and
SARA-U201 GSM module.
peripherals of an Arduino MKR board and uses a SARA R401 NB-IoT
wireless module from u-blox.

Arduino Yún Rev 2

The final board we review in this article is the Arduino Yún Rev 2.
Combining both a Microchip ATMega32U4 AVR microcontroller
and an Atheros AR9331 MIPS architecture microprocessor, the Yún
marries the best of Arduino’s ease of hardware interfacing with the
trusted open-source and flexible Linux operating system. Operating
from a single 5 V USB supply, the board’s ATMega32U4 runs at 16
MHz and has a total of twenty available GPIO pins, seven of which
can be used for PWM applications. 32 kB of onboard Flash is
available, 4 kB of which is reserved for the board’s bootloader.
Figure 8: The Arduino MKR GSM 1400 makes it simple to connect to
the cellular network.

The board makes it extremely straightforward to provision cellular

communication to an application with the minimum of configuration.
The Arduino website has a number of example programs that show
how to connect to the cellular network, and send and receive data.
Tutorials cover creating a web client to access a website page, and
how to send an SMS text.

Arduino MKR NB-1500

Providing support for one of the most recent low-power network
standards, Narrowband IoT, is the Arduino MKR NB-1500. Using Figure 10: The Arduino Yún Rev 2 combines traditional Arduino
the established cellular network, the LTE 3GPP release 13, termed hardware flexibility with the open-source Linux operating system.
LTE Cat NB1 (NB-IoT) provides a peak downlink rate of 250 kbps.
The Atheros AR9331 is clocked at 400 MHz, has 64 MB DDR2 RAM
and 16 MB of Flash. The board also features a 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n
WiFi radio and an 802.3 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port, both of which
connect to the Atheros processor. A microSD card socket is also
connected to the Linux processor. An embedded OpenWrt Linux
distribution is preloaded on the board, which includes a complete
Python 2.7 installation.

Communication between the Arduino and the OpenWrt Linux is

facilitated through a Bridge Library – see Figure 10 – full details of
which, together with application examples, can be found on the
Arduino website. A web-based software control panel permits
configuration of the Linux environment together with the WiFi
parameters. Access to the OpenWrt can also be made via the
command line or via the secure shell, SSH.
Figure 9: The Arduino adds Narrowband IoT connectivity with the These new Arduino boards open up the capability for prototyping
MKR NB-1500. a host of IoT/IIoT applications using a variety of different networking
 Mouser Electronics Whitepaper

protocols to suit your specific communication requirements. Whether

you are designing a network of sensors that need to be deployed
around a city, or need to control an item of industrial equipment in a
remote location, there is an Arduino board that will fit your needs.

Figure 11: Communication between the ATMega32U4 and the

Atheros AR9331 is facilitated by the Arduino Bridge Library.

Mouser Electronics
Authorised Distributor
www.mouser.com

Mark Patrick
Mark joined Mouser Electronics in July 2014 having previously held
senior marketing roles at RS Components. Prior to RS, Mark spent
8 years at Texas Instruments in Applications Support and Technical
Sales roles. A “hands-on” engineer at heart, with a passion for
vintage synthesizers and motorcycles, he thinks nothing of carrying
out repairs on either. Mark holds a first class Honours Degree in
Electronics Engineering from Coventry University.