A Tale of 4 Arduino Unos - Genuine, Counterfeit, Clone and Improved

It's really easy to mix up terms when talking about "Arduino Uno" boards. Is one better than the other? Is it bad to buy clone boards? What's the difference between a clone and a counterfeit?

If you're looking to buy some boards, using my referral links helps the channel with a small commission.

US and Global Links (Canada Below)
Genuine Board

Bikini Board

Duck Board

Clone

Keyestudio Plus

CANADA Links
rgbduino not available in canaderp

[twentylush]

well now i want an arduino with an anime girl in a bikini printed on it

[Elsa.zoneNt]

I just realized, my teacher doesn't encourage or doesn't mention counterfeits and clones because she herself was letting us borrow counterfeits that she bought for quite the price. and is holding us accountable if it breaks. I mean sure it's right, but now that I got a clone, I probably would never touch that pricey counterfeit again if clones would just do fine.

[deankqadj]

I agree 100% with donating to Arduino! Listening to Simple Electronics podcast really opened my eyes to what they are doing in Italy!

[SimpleElectronics]

The funny part of my interview with Andrea is that I didn't even know Arduino had all those fancy MKR and Pro boards until he told me, so I had to feverishly google them! The Arduino world is incredibly vast but for some reason, most of the boards go unnoticed!

[MrJozza]

I started off with genuine Arduino Uno and Mega boards, but nowadays I always buy clones, and haven't had any trouble with them over 4 or 5 years. So many people don't realise that the Arduino is an open-source platform, and therefore there is nothing wrong with making a clone, or building a more fully featured board on the base design. Completely agree with your view on counterfeit though; that's just abusing the open -source nature of the Arduino project, and in my view it's attempting to mislead customers too.

[kiby]

The cytron maker uno is probably one of my favourite Arduino clones out there, built in speaker, user button and gpio LEDs!

[AndrasBuzas]

"Open Smart" arduino boards are also good - lower quality but many of their ones come with different features. The other ones in your video looks great too

[stevenlightfoot]

This is good commentary. I have only bought two Arduino unos, one Arduino sensor kit, one Arduino motor shield, and one Adafruit motor shield. I am new to Arduino completely, so to start I only want to use brand name HW partly to make sure I have stuff that works, and partly to support Arduino. As I move forward in mechatronics and get more experience I expect I will start to use some generic equipment. I was happy to support Arduino by buying real kit, they have made a real great system.

[UReasonIt]

Oh, I forgot to say as I got carried away :) I don't remember any issues with the original boards. For clones, I have had many come with no boot loader and a few with DOA issues, but that has been the rare side of things. I used to test a new arrival by uploading the blink code, but if the BL was not there I would just use the avr-toolchain and send a blink I did with avrdude. I did just get a batch of nano clones in for a project that the client requires using the *duino world. None of the clones had the bootloader and I had to put it on them. Not a big deal, but I could see that as an issue for others.

[oldguy]

I started with an Uno clone included in a kit with lots of sensors - and it functions flawlessly, as far as I can tell.
Just like I give money to support open source software or other crowd-funded endeavours I wanted to support the Arduino platform/IDE & development, though.
That's why I bought both an original Mega 2560 and a Nano to have options (I'm still in the "experimenting stage").

[frenchcreekvalley]

My first Arduino board was a genuine Mega2560 and it has served me well. I have also bought and used several of the clones with the CH340 chip. I even have one of the Robored's from Yourduino. The ONLY one of ANY of them that has ever failed was the Robored--- but that failure was my OWN fault for allowing 12 volts onto an analog pin. Even then, the rest of the board works normally. I like the Ch340 boards better, by the way. ----Not hundreds, like you, but a couple dozen, at least. Except for few experiments, most are in process control environments.

[JasonLeaman]

Pretty sure I'm going to be jumping on this bandwagon !! Excited ! Good video sir !

[thisissoeasy]

Brilliant presentation! Makes you re-think...

[henricoderre]

Not long ago, I purchased 8 "Arduino" starter kits from AliExpress and began exploring the world of microcontrollers. The kits came with clones. I was a bit put off at first, but in using these I quickly realized these do everything other people are doing with their original UNO boards. So, I concur that the clones are just as good, and as an added bonus are cheaper than the original boards. The only difficulty I had with a clone was due to lack of sleep, and I absentmindedly connected a 9V rated 1A adapter to the board. Needless to say, that after a brief puff of smoke my board no longer functioned properly.

[axor]

I got my first Arduino and by accident got the clone. Got some issues to start using it but solved. It is working fine since then.

[melbaqir]

I alwyas use clones in my projects and never had a probleme, i have one genuine uno borad hat i got as a gift and i use it only for programming bootloader to other MCUs.

[Ixarx]

I have a " elegoo Uno r3 " and i got impressed By the power of the card

[pileofstuff]

Important message to get out there.

Hopefully some of the pedants listen (though I'm not holding my breath...)

[dillardc]

I have a $3 cheap-o clone but it has a usb-c port. Works great.

[markbrown]

I've just bought my first two genuine Arduino boards... Mega 2560 & Uno R3. I have many other boards from Mega to Micro and Nano... all copies and not had any problems except my last copy of a Mega and the USB packed up... time will tell if the genuine is better or not!