Why you should buy an Arduino Leonardo

The Arduino Leonardo is awesome. The newest dev from the Arduino team features USB functionality (read: stream Arduino data directly into any windows/mac app!), more pin power (more PWM, more I/O!) and is the cheapest version yet at $24.95!

If you enjoy this NYC CNC video please hit the like button and share with a friend, it really goes a long way!

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[rlrskr]

There is one major advantage to the Uno over the Leonardo:  Replaceable chip.  A DIP chip in a friction fit socket is way easier to replace as an end user than an SMT.  Makes certain smoke-releasing mistakes cheaper to fix, and makes possible certain projects that require removing or swapping the chip.

[JerryEricsson]

For some reason the Leonardo price has dropped to near clone prices, LOVE IT they seem to program easier and are quicker. Thanks for the intro even if I found it a few years after you put it up

[AxelTiger]

pwm - Pulse width modulation :) good video!

[MonsieurKaizer]

I actually like a little background music to make the video seem more "edited"... But the volume could easily be a lot lower to make it less of a distraction :)

thanks for the vid

[bleem]

I like that Idea, could put a bit of shrink warp over them so its not to conspicuous. I'll need to remember this in the future.

[mheermance]

FYI the hardware pwm isn't used by the servo library. It uses one of the timers to generate the pulse. So servos are not restricted to the pwm pins. The pwm pins are useful for DC motor control and pulsing the ena line of a an hour bridge.

[cfgosnell]

I agree wholeheartedly. When teaching Arduino programming to young students (10-12 yr old) instructing them on ways to keep from overloading the pins is difficult. Having a socket mounted IC is a big plus.

When I teach, I have special 'wires' made up that have resistors soldered in them inline to use whenever we are connecting a device like an LED, etc... to an Arduino from a breadboard to keep from overloading the pins.

[killakobra]

i have almost zero experience with microprocessors but I've read up a little on them and checked out some tutorials. they had a intro to arduinos on systm (not misspelled) over at revision 3 awhile back and they made it a point to show how to set up a board to run a chip separate from the programming board. As far as the new board goes, the price drop is nice if you plan on leaving it intact.

[diggydude]

The direct USB connectivity sounds cool if you want to communicate with (for example) third party software as the OP describes. I personally prefer the FTDI chip because I've already written a serial interface class for my software projects. I use the Nano exclusively because they're dirt cheap and mount directly on my circuit boards in the space of a DIP chip. I make sockets out of female headers to mount the Nanos on circuit boards so I can easily remove them for other uses.

[MrSaiLikesPie]

DONT WORRY MAN! TRUST ME! THE LEONARDO IS SO CONFUSING! You really need to spend so much time and research into figuring out how to fix it. I was about to buy a Leonardo, but I found out on some forums that it had problems.

[tadpole]

I believe it is "pulse width" modulation. You change the width (length, measured in time), of the pulse (on cycle/off cycle).

[killakobra]

the advantage is in the fact that you can remove the socketed chip once it's programmed and placed in a socket to reduce the cost of multiple applications.

[Nopp]

how at all is using an SMD package an improvement?
DIP is great, being able to pop the chip out of the socket ans slapping on a crystal and 2 caps is all that is needed to setup a standalone.

if you have QFP its a bitch to solder out without special tools and its much harder to implement into your circuit.

the only upside is that the QFP is cheaper and is compatible with pick and place machines..
making for a cheaper device.

[cfgosnell]

Thanks. We use 'special' wires that for example have a 470 Ohm or even a 220 Ohm resistor soldered inline. The shrinkwrap over the resistor is either red (for the 220) or purple (for the 470). These are the only wires we will suggest for connecting to the I/O pins for most projects, like lighting an LED, etc...

This is from painful experience. BTW, it seems, at least that only one I/O pin burns out at a time.

[kulminaator]

yes, preloaded chips are on sale (almost the same price as the original atmega328 in our shops, 6.1 eur preloaded vs 4.9 eur vanilla chip). and it's not the financial cost that bothers me, it's about not creating useless waste and reuse.(and yes, i have "baked" a avr-s into a useless bricks over here, doesn't take that much effort :D).

on the whole though - arduino folks are great people who have created great products. they have definitely pushed the diy borders beyond the imaginable.

[OoJxShadow]

it's Pulse WIDTH Modulation because you modulate the width of the high state.

[KubuntuYou]

I have a Micro which is basically a smaller version of the Leonardo. Startup on the Uno is almost instantaneous whereas the Micro takes a second or two. Not sure if the Leoonardo is the same but I could see that delay potentially causing issues in some applications.

[shaolung]

on the arduino you can use the analog inputs as digital ie instead of A0 it would be d15.. nice vid...

[TheDenix]

I like the through-hole version more as I bought 4 additional MCUs + a few ATTinys and can program them all by taking out the original MCU that came with Arduino and connecting the board to the MCUs on a breadboard (after burning the bootloader ofc).

[Pauldeva]

pulse width modulation not pulse width management