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The 2018 National Youth Creative Programming and Intelligent Design Competition has begun. The competition training MOOC introduced the similarities and differences of various Arduino boards. Let’s see how to choose a suitable Arduino board as your development tool.

If you are a beginner in intelligent design, the Arduino Uno board and Leonardo board are your best choices. The notable features of these two development boards are low price, simple development, and ease of mastery. Besides these two boards, what other Arduino boards can help you create fun intelligent design projects? Let’s take a look together!

The Arduino Mega board is the heavyweight in the Arduino family, characterized by multiple interfaces, large memory, and a big size. The Arduino Mega board has 16 analog input ports and 54 digital input/output ports, which is several times more than other development boards. In contrast, its memory has also increased to 256k to handle more signal inputs and outputs.

So, what intelligent design cases require the use of the Mega board? Simply put, large intelligent design cases that require a lot of input/output are a good choice for the Mega board. For example, here are a few cases:

This is an 8×8×8 LED cube, where each LED can be controlled individually. By controlling the color and on/off of the LED lights in sequence, we can create a dancing effect.

The Arduino Mega can handle such a large number of signal operations, and its numerous output ports can better output signals to the LED lights. The Mega board’s 256k memory allows for smoother LED light operations.

Another example is the interactive LED coffee table below. When an object is placed on the glass surface of the table, the LED lights below will automatically change color.

Each “grid” under the interactive LED coffee table is equipped with a sensor as an input signal, while the LED lights serve as output signals. Only the Arduino Mega board, with its numerous input and output ports, can handle these signal processes.

Having discussed the big Arduino boards, let’s take a look at the smaller Arduino development boards: Micro, Mini, and Nano.

The characteristics of the Arduino Micro, Mini, and Nano boards are their small size, but that does not mean they have simple functions. The Micro board has 12 analog input ports, while the Mini and Nano have 8, all of which are more than the Uno’s input ports. They have 14 to 20 digital input/output ports, which are also richer than the Uno board.

The small Micro, Mini, and Nano boards are suitable for developing portable intelligent designs. The device hanging next to the potted plant is a plant doctor, which can monitor the environmental changes affecting plant growth in real-time.

The Arduino development board used in the plant doctor is the Nano board, which is hidden on the side of the box.

This tracked remote-controlled car is also developed using the Arduino Nano board, which is just the length of the Nano board. This image gives us a rough idea of the size of the Nano board.

The reason for choosing Arduino Gemma and LilyPad is simple: they are designed for wearable devices. These two round Arduino boards are specifically developed for the increasing number of wearable devices. In three words, they are small, thin, and low voltage. The operating voltage for these two devices is 2.7 to 3.3 volts, and they can be powered by button batteries.

This smart design is Iron Man’s glove. The operator only needs to relax their arm, and the LED light in the palm will automatically light up, just like Iron Man flying. Let’s take a look at its implementation:

The development board for the Iron Man glove is the LilyPad, which is hidden under the LED light ring and connected to the muscle sensor via wires. The lightweight features of Arduino Gemma and LilyPad allow them to blend seamlessly with clothing.

Arduino Esplora is a special Arduino board. Unlike other Arduino boards, it has no digital or analog input/output ports, only a joystick and four buttons. The main use of the Arduino Esplora board is as a remote control handle. For example, the mechanical robotic arm designed with Esplora below.

To learn more about the Arduino development environment, learning resources, and other content, click on the mini-program to register for the 2018 National Youth Creative Programming and Intelligent Design Competition MOOC.