If you are interested in learning more about the history of the iconic Arduino UNO microcontroller you are sure to be interested in the new article published this month to the official Arduino blog providing a brief history and origins of the programmable board which has been used to create a wide variety of different applications since its introduction.
The Arduino Uno is an open-source microcontroller board based on the Microchip ATmega328P microcontroller and developed by Arduino.cc. It was first developed back in 2003 as an affordable alternative to the BASIC Stamp microcontroller. Massimo Banzi, with David Mellis, another IDII student, and David Cuartielles, added support for the cheaper ATmega8 microcontroller to Wiring originally a Master’s thesis project at IDII by Hernando Barragán. But instead of continuing the work on Wiring, they forked the project and renamed it Arduino.
Arduino UNO microcontroller origins
The Arduino team explain more about the origins of the iconic Arduino UNO microcontroller
“As familiar as we all are with the UNO, there’s probably a lot you don’t know about the iconic Arduino microcontroller board. Put on your rose-tinted spectacles, and let’s wax poetic about the origins of this beloved maker board. By 2009, the team that would become Arduino was gathering steam. A team that Make: Magazine once referred to as “designers, teachers, artists, and techno-hippies.” I don’t think anyone on that team would object to such a definition.
Forged in the crucible of a classroom, the idea of an accessible, affordable electronics development platform was under serious investigation. It would eventually give birth to the Arduino UNO, but despite its name meaning “one,” this is far from Arduino’s first board. Moreover, its name was chosen to mark a point in Arduino’s story where the business itself came out of beta and into version 1.0.”
“The UNO is an arrival point of a large number of small experimentations and incremental improvements,” says co-founder Massimo Banzi. These experiments weren’t just a learning experience for electronics design. They were useability tests, and even marketplace research. Each little quirk, unexpectedly popular feature and, of course, mistake helped to define what makers wanted and needed. This was a time when the maker movement was still unrepresented by a defining brand or killer product. But not for long.”
“On the original Arduino serial board, look at the components,” says co-founder David Cuartielles, talking about the earliest of Arduino’s self-assembly boards, which were used almost exclusively in the classroom. “They’re sorted by value. I made sure that components of a similar type and value were together, to minimize mistakes during assembly. For example, there were two diodes. In terms of operation, they’re working in opposite directions to each other. But to reduce errors when populating the board by hand, I set the diodes facing in the same direction, and the PCB’s tracks take care of orientation. So it’s optimized for education, not for electronic operation!”
For more information on the history of the Arduino UNO microcontroller jump over to the official article on the Arduino blog site by following the link below.
Source : AB
Latest Geeky Gadgets Deals
Disclosure: Some of our articles include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, Geeky Gadgets may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.