This fresh take on the traditional Arduino layout is the GlowDuino Uno. Featuring LEDs on almost every I/O pin and a bevy of other tweaks and additions brings a breath of fresh air to a board that has remained more or less unchanged for the better part of a decade. The developers behind the GlowDuino looked at what more could be squeezed out of the ATmega328PB and found four I/O pins that weren’t being used.
That’s right — the GlowDuino Uno has four more I/O pins than the standard Uno. Two of them are analog inputs as well! These aren’t just any pins, either — by adding these four pins to the header, it’s now possible to have 2 I2C buses, 2 SPI buses, or 2 serial ports. Or you can now have 8 analog inputs or 9 PWM outputs!
The changes are more than just a few additional I/O pins, though. The board uses USB-C, so it’s possible to supply much more current to attached devices than with traditional USB-B. The 5V and 3.3V rails can output a combined 1 amp, and all I/O voltages are switchable between 5V and 3.3V. The LEDs on all the traditional I/O pins are driven by MOSFETs, so they don’t have much of a measurable impact on the impedance of those I/Os. The documentation and design files hosted on GitHub are great resources for getting started with this board.
If you’re looking to upgrade your go-to Arduino dev board, this could be a great choice. It’s very well-constructed, and with the additional flexibility and ease of use offered with the new design, it makes a great board to have on your desk all the time!
