Arduino Due Mini/Nano

This may be a little premature, but does anyone know if an Arduino Due Mini/Nano Teensy sized board is planned?

Start writing up some requiremets, I'm sure it can be reduced to a smaller size.

  • desired size
  • desired power sourcing
  • desired pinouts
  • desired headers
  • desired built-in interfacing
  • etc.

I wonder if the 'vanilla version' of the SAM3X8E can be used to make own Arduino-compatible boards, since the Due page says:

The bootloader is preburned in factory from Atmel and is stored in a dedicated ROM memory.

Would this mean Atmel ships a custom Arduino bootloader with these chips, or does the Due use a standard Atmel bootloader? If the former, will be able to burn a bootloader ourselves? :~

The provided bootloaders are for UART and USB, maybe a few others. They are stored on a small rom with some IAP routines so I don't reckon they have been replaced ( UART is serial comms )

ArgusTech:
I wonder if the 'vanilla version' of the SAM3X8E can be used to make own Arduino-compatible boards, since the Due page says:

The bootloader is preburned in factory from Atmel and is stored in a dedicated ROM memory.

Would this mean Atmel ships a custom Arduino bootloader with these chips, or does the Due use a standard Atmel bootloader? If the former, will be able to burn a bootloader ourselves? :~

From that sentence and what I've read in the SAM3X8E's datasheet I believe the Due's using "standard Atmel bootloader."

Is that ROM in the 16U2, or in the ATSAM? There is no external ROM part on the board.
I haven't looked at the datasheet - maybe its access via JTAG or SPI?

Its in the ATSAM, the data sheet says:

16 Kbytes ROM with embedded bootloader routines (UART, USB) and IAP routines

also

The SAM-BA Boot is in ROM and is mapped in Flash at address 0x0 when GPNVM bit 1 is set
to 0.

So when the bit is set it must be over writable just like a normal ISP/similar

The SAM3A4C and SAM3X4C are the smaller (100pin/256k) cousins of the 144 pin SAM3X8E on the Due.
Being in the same family would make quick and dirty ...

If the vanilla SAM3XE chip like you can order it from Farnell works with own-built boards, I might develop a smaller version of the Due. I developed a variant (actually: a shield) for the 8bit Arduino for use in industrial environments (think ruggedcircuits but better :stuck_out_tongue: ), but boards with the dimensions of the Due or the Mega don't fit in our DIN-rail enclosures.

Perhaps it is possible to minimize the dimensions to something in the range of a Uno by omitting some pinheaders. Then you would have the same number of input/outputs of a regular Arduino, but with the processing power of the Due.

The Teensy 3.0 is now entering general release if you wanted an ARM board in a smaller package than the DUE. The Teensy is not the DUE, so be sure to understand what it offers and what it doesn't. Teensy 3.0 uses a modified Arduino 1.0.1 IDE.

Definately an arduino due nano would be very cool :D.

MichaelMeissner:
The Teensy 3.0 is now entering general release if you wanted an ARM board in a smaller package than the DUE. The Teensy is not the DUE, so be sure to understand what it offers and what it doesn't. Teensy 3.0 uses a modified Arduino 1.0.1 IDE.

I have one at home, awaiting torture. I can't tell you how excited I am about these little gems. The teensy is aimed at a much smaller market but I also happen to think that the Due is not only overkill but that it's design misses the sweet spot by virtue of shoehorning a 32-bit architecture into a 8-bit legacy interface. This 144-pin monstrosity seems to have been selected because one could put out a board in a similar I/O factor configuration as the Mega. But IMO they should have broken from past shield designs for the 32-bit architecture to eliminate the possibility of fried CPUs, enable improved I/O interfacing, among other issues.

For me, the 64-pin chip on the teensy offers plenty of I/O out of the box while still being bread-boardable. And the chip is 50% less to buy than the SAM processor on the Due, i.e. about the same price difference as a 328 vs. 1284. And the teensy price vs. Due price reflects that too. I am considering re-designing my DAQ boards around a standard dual pin header for the Teensy. It would eliminate a lot of the complexity from my boards and the CPUs can be re-purposed as needed later. Never mind the on-board RTC, 16-bit ADC (vs. 12 on the Due) etc.

But! There is something to be said for the benefits of older 5V-based legacy devices in terms of their ability to drive signals, etc. in ways that the more modern chips cannot.

Teensy + headers =

I hope to get some time to try some projects out on it this weekend.

Duane B

rcarduino.blogspot.com

Guys... this forum is about the Arduino Due...
let's keep in on topic

While not a Mini/Nano, I look forward to an ethernet Due. Phy ethernet and SD card can do some pretty awesome things. I have a Sam3X-EK at work for a project and the demo is pretty slick with a rich web interface but the demo is based on BeRTOS which doesn't have a large community and has custom drivers. Atmel just added "native" lwIP support to asf and will add SD card drivers in the next version(November hopefully)
Are the Due drivers ASF-based or from scratch because of licensing issues?

I wonder how the Due firmware would work with the Sam3X-EK, Atmel doesn't even sell the processor(SAM3X8H) on the board.

AFAIK The ATMEL engineers who write all the demo code ported arduino to run on the EK. They don't really use the IDE but a custom makefile.

Arduino Due, on the other hand, is included in Atmel Studio 6.

As I mentioned this Due board is the first in the family

m

Hi Massimo and thanks for stopping by.

First of all, many thanks for your time, efforts, and so on that it has taken to get the Arduino project as far as you and your team have. You've single-handedly transformed what used to be a clubby atmosphere in the embedded systems market with the excitement of open-source IDE's/hardware, excellent documentation, great boards for people to begin learning electronics on, etc. That's a huge achievement and the number of competitors imitating you is I guess a nice compliment.

That said, and I don't want to be rude, but where are we off-topic? We're comparing the Due to its competitors, it has features they don't and vice versa. Similar conversations go on all over the forums, comparing various Arduino boards to each other. Are you sensitive to the discussion of a competitors' product?

Many thanks again for all the work that you and your team do to push the Arduino business forward.

I guess that since Masssimo Banzi did not mention the topic of if there was a Due Mini/Nano officially in the works at the present time, then there probalby is not.

I had seen the Teensy 3.0 already at the time I first made this post, and that was why I naturally asked if there were any plans for an "Official" Arduino version with mor guaranteed future Software and hardware support.

As far as the Due Mega+ (Giga?) size factor goes, I will probalby only ever buy one for prototyping and so on. A Due Mini on the other hand more like 3+ for all those flying, walking, roling, swiming things where size/weight is definetely an issue. Never mind all the wearable and hideable stuff.

To CrossRoads:

Start writing up some requiremets, I'm sure it can be reduced to a smaller size.

  • desired size
  • desired power sourcing
  • desired pinouts
  • desired headers
  • desired built-in interfacing
  • etc.

Size: Same as the mini, Perhaps 4 to 8 Pins longer. Just as wide with perhaps a second parallel auter row of pins. I would prefer a rectangular board over a square one. More perimeter to surface area.
Headers: Suggestion: Male headers down for breadboard compatibility, Female headers up for additional pins.
Power sourcing/Interface: USB, Battery 5 to 15V, FTDI would be OK too.
Pinouts: 1.5 to double the amount of the pins on the Mini.

As to which pins... thats where the fun begins. Suggestions? I don't think there will be a please all solution here with all the available capabilities.

J

A small factor Due is in the list of boards that will come out.
There are a number of issues to solve ... for example with such a big processors it becomes hard to make something that would fit into a breadboard without removing access to most of the pins.

Any suggestions?

For example: Is it important to have the two separate USB connections or just the "native" connection would suffice?

m

Hi,
The 'other board' breaks out a set of perimeter pins and then leaves the others accessible through solder pads on the underside, this keeps the size down while providing access to a larger number of pins as an option. It seems like a sensible compromise for new generation boards.

Duane B

rcarduino.blogspot.com