Arduino Uno Giveaway: The Quest for the Mini Gold Arduino by the e14 Oompa Loompas!

Comment Below with Your Build a Present Project Proposal to Celebrate the 16th Anniversary of the Arduino Uno!

It's 2021, about to turn to 2022 and the health food craze that swept the world as soon as Generation X turned into the Millennial, then morphed into Generation X, Y, and Z has devastated the Ooompa Loompa community.   Charlie Bucket, who took over control of the Chocolate Factory from Willy Wonka, and by all accounts was a benevolent owner; introducing pensions, profit sharing (Oompa Loompas included), never laying off an employee no matter how incompetent the performance, and also (by the way) offering free college tuition to any factory worker and their extended (ridiculously extended, actually) family "as long as they asked"; has long bankrupted the original company and control has been divested to a series of multinational conglomerates. Secrecy of all things in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory was displaced by radical transparency during the Charlie Bucket era and it was not long before factory secret recipes spread like wild fire over YouTube, and later Reddit, and it was not long before the demands of innovation resulted in a fair amount of burnout among Oompa Loompa factory workers.   Once the corporate world took over the factory, Oompa Loompas who could no longer perform to optimal standards, such as those who became tired or had any personal issues, became expendable.  This led to a lot of Oompa Loompas losing their jobs at the factory.       

It was against this backdrop that small group of technically minded Oompa Loompas, who were recently let go, began getting interested in fun electronics projects.   They began fooling around on Arduino Unos and discovered the element14 community where they could do as many Arduino Uno projects as they wanted to, due to lack of required components necessary to enter into Project14 contests.  Needing something to do, and also realizing that there were more things to life than being paid in cocoa beans, they agreed to work for element14 for the sole purpose of a shopping cart to go along with more cocoa beans then they had before.  Under terms of the agreement, they only have to work for element14 for the duration of the 2021 holiday season.

One of their first projects, probably a case of shameless nostalgia, was to go on an epic quest to find exactly five Golden Mini Arduinos.   When asked whether this was a case of Oompa Loompas simply trying to relive their Willy Wonka glory days, an e14 Oompa Loompa who insisted on remaining anonymous became immediately defensive:

"I don't know how you can equate Five Golden Tickets with Five Golden Mini Arduino Unos. The two things are totally different." - annonymous e14 Oompa Loompa

As luck had it,  Arduino was secretly producing Arduino Mini Gold at which point it was decided during a recent board meeting that it was probably beneficial to listen to what the e14 Oompa Loompas had to say. They were right about the existence of Golden Mini Arduinos, long before that information became public. 

Arduino is celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Arduino Uno by releasing a limited edition version of the iconic Arduino Uno.  with a board called the Arduino Uno Mini Gold.  This post will be updated as more details become available. 

Build a Present to Give to Arduino

If you are interested in giving Arduino a present that uses an Arduino Uno board then join the Build a Present group and comment below with your present for Arduino.   Having problems deciding what gift to build for Arduino's present?  Scroll down through gift giving guide below to check out awesome projects made by our element Community members using the Arduino.   When you're finished with your present then post a blog in Build a Present to show off your project.

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e14 Oompa Loompa's are Trying to Find Them!

The e14 Oompa Loompa Arduino Uno Gift Giving Guide:

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Holiday Lovers	Build a Present for Holiday Lovers: The Arduino Uno is perfect for building festive projects during the holiday season! Cool LED Displays: Boost That LED! by jc2048 Cool LED Display Project Elf House- Complete by beagles The Holiday Special Infinity Living Christmas Wreath by dwinhold The Holiday Special LED Firework Suite - the details by 14rhb Merry Boxes & LEDs Albero di(Gi) Natale by costantinorizzuti Merry Boxes & LEDs Build a Present for Music Lovers: Music comes from the heart and so do these Arduino Uno projects! The Musical Box by balearicdynamics Electronic Toys Dum-De-Dum, the Cardboard Drum! by balearicdynamics Simple Music Maker Arduino SD Card Audio Player & LM386 Audio Amplifier board by gam3t3ch Open Arduino A Simple Arduino Music Box by jc2048 Simple Music Maker
Music Lovers	Build a Present for Music Lovers: Music comes from the heart and so do these Arduino Uno projects! The Musical Box by balearicdynamics Electronic Toys Dum-De-Dum, the Cardboard Drum! by balearicdynamics Simple Music Maker Arduino SD Card Audio Player & LM386 Audio Amplifier board by gam3t3ch Open Arduino A Simple Arduino Music Box by jc2048 Simple Music Maker
Robot Lovers	Build a Present for Robot Lovers: Everyone loves robots.   Build a robot buddy as a gift to give to someone lonely! Arduino Powered MSE-6 (Mouse Droid) by jomoenginer Open Arduino Cycloboat by molham  Open Arduino Robots with Wheels - CupRobot by carmelito Robots with Wheels Simple Solar BOT ----Finale by snidhi Solar Power Devices Xylophonomatic by  tech_nut81 Techno Toys
Test & Tool Lovers	Build a Present for Test & Tool Lovers: You can win tool kit bundles for your Build a Present project.   You could even build your own test equipment! DIY Test Equipment: The Di-o-Matic, a Simple Diode Tester [Arduino] by jc2048 DIY Test Equipment 3D Printer Filament Automatic Dispenser for Arduino - #1 Design and Hardware by balearicdynamics DIY Test Equipment TLE94112 Interactive Testing Platform by balearicdynamics DIY Test Equipment Arduino in Test Instrumentation - Intro: SCPI Programmable Switch by jancumps Open Arduino Build an Uno Present for Camera Lovers: The Arduino Uno is perfect for doing cool things that involve cameras! IR intervalometer for camera by kk99 Open Arduino PIV dual camera hardware trigger using arduino by rsc

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Camera Lovers	Build an Uno Present for Camera Lovers: The Arduino Uno is perfect for doing cool things that involve cameras! IR intervalometer for camera by kk99 Open Arduino PIV dual camera hardware trigger using arduino by rsc
Sensor Lovers	Build an Uno Present for Sensor Lovers: For those that can't get enough Sensors!   Build a Present using the Arduino Uno that explores or experiments with Sensors! Arduino, Temperature, LCD and more by mcb1 Celebrating Arduino with a Torch Relay! by ntewinkel Open Arduino Octopod: Smart Home IOT Project by sakshambhutani Clustered MCUs
Outdoor Lovers	Build an Uno Present for Outdoor Lovers: Looking for a present for someone that loves there garden or working on things outside?  Build a Present using the Uno for something that goes outside! Arduino and ESP-01 based irrigation system by urkraft Open Arduino The Arduino Starter Kit Upgraded Case by gam3t3ch Portable Electronics Kit Jumbo Servo by Movers and Shakers Marshmallow Eating Poster Makes Arduino Roaster by sjmill01 Open Arduino SoundFi - Transmitting Data Using Sound (Ultrasonic Sound) by Project 'GiraSol' - Oliver Schalles by oliverschalles Solar Power Devices Big Petro Maker Magic: $100 Datalogger That Can Save Millions by sjmill01 Remote Monitoring & Control
Toy Lovers	Build an Uno Present for Toy Lovers: IoT Magical Wand by dixonselvan Clustered MCUs A simple but scary gift of The Monster Book of Monsters (Harry Potter) by beagles Open Arduino The Useless Box by balearicdynamics Electronic Toys

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RF Lovers	Build an Uno Present for RF Lovers: An Arduino Uno RF present is the perfect gift for someone that's addicted to radio waves!! Field Strength Meter by kmikemoo RF/Radio Frequency NFC-Badge - Update your badge with your smartphone - Proof of concept by bernhardmayer NFC/RFID ArduTrx - a 2-meter-band ham radio transceiver with Arduino by bernhardmayer Open Arduino
Lover Lovers	Build an Uno Present for Lovers: Give a present to someone that only believes in love.    Now with faster reset switch! Arduino Starter Kit - Love Meter with faster Reset by gam3t3ch Arduino Projects Episode 433 - Arduino Based Love Tester element14 presents