Need advice on new board - Uno Wifi or MKR 1000/1010?

Projects General Guidance
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I have created a project where I get readings from an Arduino Uno onto a Windows PC (connected through a COM port), and have written a C++ server which then passes this data via a UDP socket to another PC in the same Wi-Fi network. I want to extend this so I can send the data over the Internet to either the Arduino cloud, or ideally to a remote PC. I would also like to by-pass the connected PC such that I can send direct from the Arduino to the remote PC.
Can anyone suggest which hardware upgrade I should get? A Udemy tutorial uses a 'maker' board (MKR 1000/1010), but I see there is also a Uno with Wi-Fi built in. The local electronics store was unable to help me.
Does the MKR board replace the Uno (i.e. do I just discard the Uno and replicate all its wiring on the MKR), or does it work together with the Uno?
Thanks in advance for any help.

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I suggest to use one of the MKR series. The Arduino UNO WiFi is not an UNO with added WiFi, it's a completely different board (despite it's name, board naming is definitely no strength of Arduino).

Keep in mind that the MKR Arduinos run on 3.3V in contrast to the 5V of the UNO (we have no clue how relevant that is in your setup as we know nothing about the hardware).

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Hello,
I have purchased and tested with all the boards you are proposing;

  • Arduino Uno Rev2.
  • Arduino MKR1000.
  • Arduino MKR1010.
    If your sensors are 5V based you need to use Uno Rev2.
    If you can run at 3.3V use the MKR1000 or the MKR1010. The MKR1010 has a Wifi-Nina on board (the Uno rev 2 also) that can be real pain to make work reliable. The issue I found out after months of testing and cursing is that they go default in low power mode resulting in very poor UDP performance.
    The MKR1000 is very reliable as it uses an other technology. You might also want to take a look at the ESP8266 family. I use a Mega 2560 with an LCD display and an ESP8266 as WiFi extender to record the charging data of my hybrid car. The ESP8266 talks over serial with the MEGA2560. ESP's are really cheap.
    Other important remark: be careful with the MKR series, if you happen to feed their on board serial port using an USB to serial converter even at 3.3 volts, and you happen to disconnect the main USB connector (power supply), then you will blow them up. You need to make sure they are fed always when their on board second serial port is receiving signal voltage.
    Best regards,
    Johi.
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