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  • Author Author: wolfgangfriedrich
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Small form-factor microcontroller board families

Which of the following board types / eco-systems do you think has the largest exposure and has been used in real projects the most?

 

This is about form factors smaller than the standard Arduino Uno format. I am thinking about new shields and want to put a second connector option on there to make it more flexible. It is going to be a display function, so I am not really interested in the higher power computer modules like RaspberryPi and such which already have video output.

 

- Wolfgang.

  • I've been thinking about this too, and I've concluded that Adafruit's feather would be the way to go if ever I'm to settle on a form factor for myself.

     

    Adafruit (like Arduino) is investing a lot on their ecosystem and they have a shield-system in place as well (feather wings, in their parlance). They also are investing a lot on interconnects like their stemma and stemma qt connections, and have been updating their past breakout boards to be compatible.

     

    Nothing beats the Arduino Uno R3 shield eco system right now, but if I were a betting person I would bet on the feather form factor as the one that would take over for the "smaller size but still capable" segment.

     

    Nano would come in close, but I feel that's more for breadboard friendliness rather than expandability (you can't really stack expansions on top of the nano without much changes) and the pin count might be too small especially for microcontrollers like the nrf52840 which has 48 gpios.

  • I like to use digispark attiny85 for simple projects.

  • ESP is evolving now, with Boosting lib for new ecosystem.

    I am testing one to support camera, lcd and captative touch all in one small module. Small as it is.

  • in reply to wolfgangfriedrich

    I think the Arduino brand commands a much larger market than Adafruit Feather at this time and is a more attractive target for cloning, partly because of that and partly because the they have priced the MKR series more proportional to MCU capability within the Arduino family than cost of manufacturing. So there is more margin available to lure buyers away from the name brand. They could possibly be lower cost than an Uno, but that would erode their Uno sales. Just my opinion - your mileage may vary.

  • in reply to dougw

    Yes I agree, cloning is certainly a good indicator. Based on my Twitter feed I get the feeling that the Feather form factor is the more popular choice. I have yet to come across any MKR clones from makers.

     

    I do like the Nano form factor, but in my opinion it does have limited options for "shields/hats" due to its tiny size (could argue that they are more akin to Adafruit's Trinket and Sparkfun's Arduino Pro Mini). I suspect that users of Nano's are more likely to create a custom specific board and use the Nano as a SoM (system on module)... but it is very early days with these new Nano's.

  • in reply to dougw

    Thanks for your input, Doug.

    The cloning is a very good indicator.

    Any particular reason, why the MKR cloning should pick up in the short term. It is on the market for quite some time already but did not pick up much traction from what I have seen.

     

    - W.

  • The most popular will use the Arduino IDE.

    I think it will boil down to price and availability between the new Nano, MKR and Feather.

    I suspect the MKR will see more cloning in the short term that will make it the lowest cost and highest volume platform.

    Keep an eye on which platform gets the most cloning uptake....

  • in reply to BigG

    Good points, BigG.

     

    I probably should ignore the Qwiic and ESP results, as they don't fit my intend at all. I will have a word with the person, who put them on the list. image

     

    Thanks,

    - W.

  • Some of your category choices seem confusing.

     

    Firstly, the Sparkfun Qwiic does not really fit as a dev board form factor. It is a connection system for any dev boards. I see that Adafruit have adopted similar (also referred to as STEMMA QT) for most of their new breakout boards. E.g. https://www.adafruit.com/product/4646

     

    SeeedStudio have the Grove connection system (similar to Adafruit's Stemma).

     

    If that's what you are trying to understand (interface options) then you should have also include Mikroe's click form factor, which is commonly used.

     

    Then secondly, the ESP 32/6288 category does not fit as these are modules. I don't believe there is an ESP32 dev board with the same pinout as the ESP8266 dev board unless it's in the feather form form factor. For ESP8266 there is the ESP-01, which is different to NodeMCU.

  • in reply to mp2100

    Hey Allen,

    Thanks for voting.

    I might have not worded this very clear, I am doing this poll not to find out what people would like to see, but more what they are seeing what is out there in terms of market penetration. That would give me a datapoint to not pick an interface that nobody would use. I hope that makes sense.

    - W.