Arduino UNO R4: Nice upgrade or troublemaker?
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- Опубликовано: 5 июл 2023
- After 12 years, the UNO R3 is finally getting an update in the form of two new UNO boards, the Arduino UNO R4 Minima and the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi (that's how Arduino spells it even if the correct spelling should be hyphenated).
As an educator working with students ranging from teenagers to 60 years old, I had to order the new boards as soon as they were available to see how the new versions will fit in my classrooms.
I've been using the R3 (and its clones) for several years with total beginners, so that's the focus of my review: How will they fit in a beginner environment ? What might happen when a total noob starts looking for tutorials? How many migraines will I get because of weird edge cases that newcomers are sometime better at finding than more advanced users ?
The (ugly) code I wrote for my example are here: github.com/iadjedj/lgp_unor4
Resources used in this video :
- UNO R4 Minima :
Arduino Store: store.arduino.cc/products/uno...
Datasheet: docs.arduino.cc/resources/dat...
Arduino Docs: docs.arduino.cc/hardware/uno-...
- UNO R4 WiFi:
Arduino Store: store.arduino.cc/products/uno...
Datasheet: docs.arduino.cc/resources/dat...
Arduino Docs: docs.arduino.cc/hardware/uno-...
- Components datasheets:
Atmega328p Datasheet (PDF): ww1.microchip.com/downloads/e...
Renesas RA4M1: www.renesas.com/us/en/product...
Renesas ISL854102FRZ-T
(Power Supply) PDF: www.mouser.fr/datasheet/2/698...
- Other reviews:
@HomoFaciens review of the board: • Opinion: The brand new...
@EEVblog forum: www.eevblog.com/forum/microco... 
Наука
Somehow, this video made 20 times more views than my previous videos, and it made me double my number of subscribers!
So thank you again to everyone who watched, commented and subscribed!
This video was released only a few days after the release of the boards, so let me give some updates:
- First, the R4 WiFi is now compatible with Arduino IoT Cloud: blog.arduino.cc/2023/07/12/introducing-uno-r4-wifi-support-in-the-arduino-cloud/
- I was able to run a debug session on the R4 WiFi using Platform IO without any external hardware
For those who asked for an in-depth review or more code examples, here some nice reviews made by other channels that I've found :
- @Dronebotworkshop: ruclips.net/video/kJE9CBb3fT8/видео.html
- @adafruit : ruclips.net/video/uw0EU8urz5M/видео.html
- @esp32 (in Spanish 🇲🇽) : ruclips.net/video/HQ4J0-3RN7c/видео.html
Merci ! I don't speak French ha ha . I wish I could understand your very fast English accent. Thanks goodness for the closed captions. I appreciate pointing out issues in the tutorials that can cause problems.
thanks for the review ! I was really interested in the LED matrix ( for tamagotchi reasons :3 )
Can't wait for your feedback about the future wifi features ;)
btw, excellent video format, love it !!
Very well explained. You are skilled tutor Ilann!!
What I missed in the video is compilation time. In my classroom, compilation time is key. For a Leo, MEGA or UNO it is near instant, compilation for a Microbit is also very fast, Teensy ditto, but for M0/M4 boards is was much slower, and for ESP32 it is unbearable slow (1 minute compilation time!) I do not agree about the confusion with Serial and Serial 1, we use Leonardos for ages, because they have dual UART, which is a must have for GPS, GSM, MIDI and stuff like that. I also hope they kept SPI exclusive to the ISCP header, and no wiring through pins 10-13 as well. Another reason I prefer the Leo over the original UNO: you have extra pins and easier SPI hookup. I also quite often use the 6 extra analog inputs on the LEO, especially for multi-analog-stick gaming projects many students make. I actually dilike USB-C, as the port dies easily in classrooms, and USB-B can be soldered by hand easily, USB-micro is doable as well (1mm spacing), yet USB-C connectors need a reflow machine for repair.
It seems Arduino is trying to get involved into 32bits world. But, I think it would be very difficult to beat ESP32 and RASPEBERRY PI Pico. They are really cheap and very well documented.
Both are not good IMO. Give me a Teensy 4.0 any time. Such a relief to work with. And 10 times as fast as an ESP32 or Pi Pico.
@@lovemadeinjapanUnless you need that power, using a Teensy is just overkill, and the price
@@argvSys You can perfectly use it for prototyping, and move code to a Pico when the project is finished. In that phase overkill and expensive are very different. You probably don't deal with a classroom. ESP32 is not suitable there.
@@lovemadeinjapan Oh, ok. I thinked you were refering to hobbyst projects and not a classroom.
For prototyping, any board is useful, but students will never use the full resources of a Pico or an ESP (or even this thing called """UNO""" R4) in the first place (unless they program them in the Arduino IDE), so why to get the bigger thing? Also, MicroPython exists, so presentations should not be a problem since its an interpreted language, and when they finish the project, translate that to C++.
¿Why ESP is not suitable for classrooms? Just wondering.
@@argvSys Compile time. They can click compile maybe 3-4 times in a lesson of 45 minutes. With the M4/Teensy/Leonardo it a matter of seconds. Maybe it could be in Micropython, but I don't see fit for that language in the language tree.
Regarding the LED matrix in the R4 WiFi, it looks fun but I wonder how many projects will use it (specially when the board is inside a box or you use a shield). I think this kind of functionality should be on a shield not in the main board.
I was thinking the same. But, I will probably use it for testing my logic.
If it means anything, I used it to build a pong clone, so it's getting some use lol
We love GameZIP's with true color LEDs combined with microbits for this.... Perfect combination to program simple games in C++/Arduino.
Fabulous overview! Thank you kindly
What confuses me, is the use of an ESP32 for WiFi on these things... when the ESP32 is a more capable microcontroller in its own right. Am I missing some big obvious thing that makes this logical? Or shouldn't they have just used the ESP32 as the main processor?
you're right, the ESP32 is a really powerful microprocessor that's even more powerful than the arduino R3 but the dealbreaker is that when you upload a code to it from the arduino IDE it has to be written to it's flash memory and it can take like 20-30 seconds just to run a simple blink code for example and thats why arduino's are more preferred
The reason is financial, not technical. Arduino has a business relationship with ARM, so all new Arduino boards have an ARM processor as the main chip. The ESP32 uses a chip from Tensilica which is a competitor to ARM so is only allowed to be used as a peripheral device to provide WiFi etc.
What is more surprising is using an ESP32-S3. Why not use a lower cost ESP32-C3 or ESP32-S2?
You're not really thinking about efficiency if you're using the Arduino IDE and such, so honestly it's not the worst of ideas to leave a bad WiFi code to be written in a dual-core wifi+BL chip and leave some application code to a cortex M4. I'm not so sure that a single xtensa core is faster than an M4 tho
Also, should add that people generally dislike both the ADCs and DACs from the ESP32 chips, so the renesas' one should take care of it
For advanced users, a lot of confussion, for beginners, they still will use "digitalRead(1)" so. . . the troubles will start at deprecated libraries using AVR instructions :,D I had to get a Leonardo even when I had a Zero because they didn't work on the Cortex architecture.
About analogWrite I ever had that problem, they should name it pwmWrite to avoid confusions. I like how in mbed they have AnalogOut and PwmOut to be clear what do each.
I really like the new dual serial! That was one of my reasons to use Arduino Mega. When I set up the companion controller as HID, I had to use soft-serial, or Arduino Mega to connect a serial terminal.
Analyse intéressante. Vivement un projet concret avec cette nouvelle carte, si c'est prévu alors je vais m'abonner !
Thank you for the information. Like I wrote in another video the worst thing compared to the R3 is the max current for an output, 40mA as you said in the video, and 8mA on the R4. So you will always need transistors or small relais to command an actuator. So more hardware needed. That's a pity.
While it's still on market, I'll buy myself another Original Uno r3
0:25 yes, that's EXACTLY my case! So cool to have a new videooo 🤗
We need a basically 328P refresh drop in chip from Atmel, still 5V, more memory, more ram, higher frequency, maybe better ADC, DAC etc... Uno need this, not that microcontroller from Renesas
No "revision" should change the hardware capabilities of a thing. "Uno" means "atmega328 based". If they wanted a new chip fine, but they should then have called it "the Trentamila ventisette" or whatever.
It is a fail no matter what name it has..
What made uno so popular? Usabilitie and low complexity.. Not board are a chaos mixture of their feature set, the led matrix is laughable at best and a toy..
100% with you on about the "revision" not changing the chip.
The R4 WiFi released under another name could have been a nice addition to the Arduino product line
"Matrista uselessto quattra"
Nice video, thanks for sharing it, keep it up :)
Like the led matrix makes it a good attractive tool for educational programming. its about time they did a board with an esp32 and some extra gpio hardware, in the old footprint they could easily do a 32, sdcard slot, rtc, and some 12bit a2d / d2a.
Would have been nice to just use the esp32 as their main processor and use all the cores inside and not create a tandem chaos overload bords
@@kitecattestecke2303 they don't seem to like espessif...... I think it's because everyone jumped on the 8266 and it was a success that they overlooked
Given the main target audience of the UNO boards (beginners/education), I don't necessarily think that having a coprocessor is a bad idea. That way, the network stack run on a completely separate chip and cannot be messed up by bad beginner code.
A few years ago it was quite common to use a Nordic NRF5x or an ESP8266 with an UNO to add wireless capabilities even if the "companion chip" was more capable than the 328p
I bought an Arduino last week for the first time (after using the Raspberry Pi for decades). The Arduino is lots of fun. I have now a large collection of gizmos (modules) to plug into it, like a kid again discovering something new. I bought it though to tinker with some model railway projects, and discover that because they have changed the two main micro-controllers, the R4 is a different architecture to the R3 and is not compatible with a complex model railway control system that I wish to build. C'est la vie, not a disaster. I'll get the older Arduino Mega for the project, and keep the R4 Wifi for another project. Merci pour la vidéo, nice accent ;)
The lack of a crystal has rendered the R4 not useable for my turntable projects that are driven by SimpleFOC. Have several old Unos that work superbly, but i tried an R4 and no joy as the speed of my turntable was nowhere near as accurate as with an old Uno.
Kind of not a fan. I'm bothered by the change of architecture. For me, I do not associate the brand name with the formfactor but with the Achitecture.
For me Uno means AVR Achitecture. I was already unhappy with the Nano brand switch to ARM (Nano 33 IoT, Nano 33 BLE).
Don't get me wrong I have nothing against using ARM chips.
By now I used 6 Nano 33 IoT Boards for personal projects.
In January made my Arduino Hobby to employment and now work as an Embedded Systems Developer. There I developed with the RP2040 (Raspberry Pi Pico) which too is an ARM chip. But depending on the project an 8bit Achitecture can be superior to a (comparatively) complex 32bit Architecture.
But now generally a great product while not attractive to me, I have more than enough spare controllers to last me a couple years and when I used those up I'll switch to custom PCBs.
Please give the arduino zero a look and test... The samd processor is very very avr esque and fast, truly nice board
Great video 👍🏻
Haven't started playing with mine yet. Anyone tried this one with Arduino IOT cloud ? Wondering if there is any more success with this board and the cloud agent, which seems to be seriously flawed. I'm not sure if Arduino just isn't into the cloud implementation long term, or if the development is just a little out of their level of ability. This really could be IOT for the masses if they can get on top of the cloud agent issues.
Hello and thank you for your comment.
As I said in the pinned comment, I was able to use the R4 WiFi with IoT Cloud briefly, the agent wasn't a big problem for me (I'm using macOS, maybe that's OS specific ?)
Have you ever tried Adafruit.IO?
I made another video on Adafruit.IO and their no-code firmware (WipperSnapper, currently in beta), their ecosystem seems much more mature and stable for quick prototypes especially for designers/students. Several ESP32 boards and the Pico W are already compatible (the R4 WiFi is not supported yet, but I'm sure it will be in the future), that's my bet for "IoT prototyping for the masses" ;)
I tried it, R4 can connect IOT Cloud without problem. But you must first upgrade firmware (Cloud shows it, how to make)
Thank you ❤
Bon boulot 👏
Le retour des vidéos (on fait comment si on comprend pas l’anglais)
Sous-titres en français disponibles ;)
C'est l'occasion de s'y mettre, ca rend service :)
I find Arduino released this thing without making sure the reference material thoroughly covers the programming differences between this Renesas RA platform and the platform the UNO R3 uses. Does a library environment for this new platform exist?
For example, try figuring out the interrupts and the available interrupt types. See if the reference document code for interrupts actually compiles or functions as advertised. See if you can get pin change interrupts working. Please show us how if you manage this. I agree this R4 will be frustrating until the public Arduino community catches up with functioning libraries and documentation having functioning code examples.
It seems to me that a beginner's development board should have enough current to drive hardware if the focus is not heavy into software like the Raspberry Pi. I personally want to play with components as well as software, but it seems that each board makes you pick between them. Pi is more powerful and is software heavy, but not nearly as easy to learn. R3 is a somewhat limited playground that doesn't include enough power to support PC style interface peripherals. The reason you don't see commercial developers drop what they are doing to use Arduino or RPi has to be a functionality limit that you hit while trying to use them. Bottom line: they are best viewed as a learners' hobbyist toys.
Great yet more arduinos that’s more expensive than esp32
to be fair esp32,stm32 and rp2040 are very cheap
And worse with pinout and support yay more chaos
@@kitecattestecke2303 how many pins do you need? you can add a chip?
It’s still cheaper
Clones probably won't be more expensive after the chip shortage is over. You used to be able to get Arduino clones for about $1.50.
Also, sometimes you need 5V IO. Pity the power on the IO pins is down to 8mA, though.
Isn't the only reason to buy from Arduino themselves to support R&D and software development?
And it can't be good to rely on everything to be made in one foreign country. Good to keep alternatives spread around.
Do you have info on why the SPI bus is slower on the R4 than the old R3?
Super cool la vidéo! Comment se porte le Tamagochi tranche de pain?
Il a f1
Well as far I see, it does the common job. I'm more interested how stepper control is improving with the new boards. I haven't seen reviews about that.
Be nice if the can had a transceiver on board.
it's all nice but let's not make it difficult now please!
for example I can't work very well with that ESP32 OR!!!
a video REALLY needs to show everything step by step and really not skip anything, maybe then it will work with something like ESP32.
I am very happy with the simple old Arduinos!
( And honestly, clones too )
Regards Rob
Would be nice if people that can. Could work on porting GRBL to the R4. Would be a wonderful 32bit drop in upgrade for arduino driven projects.
...add piezo & hc-12 (rf) embedded with newer board...
almost all projects in the arduino world require more than enough computing power with the R3. I don't understand the usefulness of this upgrade for the Arduino world, after all if I want to use ESP, I use an ESP... and it costs even less.
I'm glad that they finally brought the Uno to the modern world...
I'd be curious to see if someone comes up with a proper library for the board (something like libopencm3).
C'est déroutant les titres en France, le nom de la chaîne en Français mais l'audio en anglais.
oui
🧐🧐
Unfortunately it is NOT backward compatible. Should have been called duno.
Entry price excessive and a poor hardware solution for a final product. Better to use a board like the dev kit for CH32V208 which has massive functionality at a very low price, all with one microcontroller and a crystal. The popularity of Arduino does not justify using it any more. The CH32V003 are great too but easier to lock your self out of if you mess up with programming on the swdio pin or oscillator source. My current choice for small stuff though.
Hard we know, you know
The companionship on the arduino, you know, are tree
In french please! En français s'il vous plait !
I would say trouble-maker as it currently is advertised as a USB MIDI compliant device but does not live up to that dream (yet!), useless.
Please slow down! I understand English is not your first language, but your fast speech & accent are very difficult to follow. You have excellent content - just slow down!
Vous parler trop vite cela rend votre accent Parisien très agacent... mais quand meme très instructif ...
Calling it Arduino UNO is such an stupid idea.
Pour une fois que c'est un français il parle anglais pfff franchement comment voulez vous donner envie au jeune francophone qui ne maîtrise pas l'anglais
THANK YOU FOR THIS USEFUL INF. ONLY ONE SUGESTION. SPEAK MORE CLEAR AND SLOW DOWN NO BODDY IS CHASING YOU.THANKS.
Two chaos boards on a different achitecture? Was this a try to create antithesis of uno limited feature set and easy to comprehend archiecture?
The arduino zero was agreat try...
They should have gone Esp32 only with usb and some more smd add on chips, heck even a AD converter on the same board would have been killer feature but NO
Nice review! Wondering if any custom PCBs may help for any upcoming content? If so, would love to suppy freely and reach any YT collab together if possible. (PCBWay zoey)
Great video arduino's❤awesome🇧🇷😉👍 @arduinomaquinas thank you man and subscribed 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏