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SparkFun RedBoard - Programmed with Arduino
At SparkFun we use many Arduinos and we’re always looking for the simplest, most stable one. Each board is a bit different and no one board has everything we want, so we decided to make our own version that combines all our favorite features. The SparkFun RedBoard combines the simplicity of the UNO’s Optiboot bootloader (which is used in the Pro series), the stability of the FTDI (which we all missed after the Duemilanove was discontinued) and the R3 shield compatibility of the latest Arduino UNO R3.
The RedBoard can be programmed over a USB Mini-B cable using the Arduino IDE: Just plug in the board, select “Arduino UNO” from the board menu and you’re ready to upload code. RedBoard has all of the hardware peripherals you know and love: 14 Digital I/O pins with 6 PWM pins, 6 Analog Inputs, UART, SPI and external interrupts. We’ve also broken out the SDA, SCL and IOREF pins that showed up on the UNO R3, so the RedBoard will be compatible with future shields. This version adds an SMD ISP header for use with shields.
You can power the RedBoard over USB or through the barrel jack. The on-board power regulator can handle anything from 7 to 15VDC. Check out the related items below for a compatible wall-wart power supply.
Not sure which Arduino or Arduino-compatible board is right for you? Check out our Arduino Buying Guide!
- ATmega328 microcontroller with Optiboot (UNO) Bootloader
- USB Programming Facilitated by the Ubiquitous FTDI FT231X
- Input voltage - 7-15V
- 0-5V outputs with 3.3V compatible inputs
- 14 Digital I/O Pins (6 PWM outputs)
- 6 Analog Inputs
- ISP Header
- 32k Flash Memory
- 16MHz Clock Speed
- All SMD Construction
- R3 Shield Compatible
- Red PCB!
SparkFun RedBoard - Programmed with Arduino Product Help and Resources
SparkFun Inventor's Kit Experiment Guide - v4.0
November 15, 2017
The SparkFun Inventor's Kit (SIK) Experiment Guide contains all of the information needed to build all five projects, encompassing 16 circuits, in the latest version of the kit, v4.0a.
Light-Seeking Robot
November 28, 2017
We use parts from the SparkFun Inventor's Kit v4.0 to create a light-seeking robot that mimics the behavior of single-celled organisms.
Endless Runner Game
November 28, 2017
We make a simple side-scrolling endless runner game using parts from the SparkFun Inventor's Kit v4.0.
RedBoard Santa Trap
December 25, 2014
A fun holiday project to try for anyone looking to catch Santa on Christmas!
RedBoard vs. Uno
August 6, 2013
In this tutorial we discuss the differences and similarities between the RedBoard and the Arduino Uno (SMD and PTH). The development platforms
SIK Experiment Guide for Arduino - V3.3
March 20, 2017
The SparkFun Inventor's Guide is your map for navigating the waters of beginning embedded electronics. This guide contains all the information you will need to explore the 16 circuits of the SparkFun Inventor's Kit for the RedBoard or Arduino Uno R3.
SIK Keyboard Instrument
April 15, 2016
We can use the parts and concepts in the SparkFun Invetor's Kit to make a primitive keyboard instrument.
Clap On Lamp
November 28, 2017
Modify a simple desk lamp to respond to a double clap (or other sharp noise) using parts from the SparkFun Inventor's Kit v4.0.
Activity Guide for SparkFun Tinker Kit
March 29, 2018
This activity guide will take you through the basics of building 11 different circuits with the SparkFun Tinker Kit and how to program them using the Arduino IDE.
Permission issues installing drivers
If you need to set up FTDI based boards in a lab environment where users don’t have permission to install drivers, an administrator can install the driver once, and then make the computer skip installing drivers for every new FTDI device by making a registry change. This solution can sometimes fix this specific problem.
See this page on the FTDI website for directions how.
Enclosure Compatibility Issues
The SparkFun RedBoard is slightly bigger than the Arduino Uno. Therefore, certain Arduino Uno enclosures will not work with the Redboard due to the narrow tolerances they have. Also, the LEDs are positioned in a different location on the board compared to the Arduino Uno so certain features of some enclosures will not work.
We have found that these Arduino Uno Enclsoures: clear and black ] are not compatible with the RedBoard. The tolerance was too small for the Redboard to fit. We have found that this Arduino Project Enclosure is compatible with the RedBoard.
Fluxx
Sangeetha Alagappan
Filling hospitals with heroes
Soil Moisture Sensing
Sarah Al-Mutlaq
Making a plant self watering system using SparkFun's Soil Moisture Sensor
Using FreeRTOS Semaphores in Arduino IDE
Phillip Stevens
FreeRTOS, simple, easy, robust, and optimised for Arduino IDE. Using FreeRTOS Semaphores to share and protect physical resources.
Learns or Teaches Arduino without any Line of...
Gustavo Reynaga
Hello everyone, this is the first Arduino tutorial on how to program without writing any line of code, using Ardublock.
Customer Reviews
4.7 out of 5
Based on 24 ratings:
1 of 1 found this helpful:
No complaints
After years of on/off tinkering with Arduino I finally bought ten of these to standardize and replace my aging collection of taped-up/hacked-on Genuinos and brand X knockoffs. I love the USB Micro/Mini/whatever instead of the needlessly big USB-B metal shielding that would short out on the bottom of whatever shield was installed on classic Arduinos.
2 of 3 found this helpful:
Love this ❤️
It’s great and made in the USA. Got this for a good discount during the arduino day sale. It still was twice as much as a cheap eBay clone, but it’s four times as reliable. Sparkfun is a company I would highly recommend. Good customer service and friendly staff.
5 of 8 found this helpful:
Great but...
Wish it had a micro-b USB connector instead of mini-b.
1 of 2 found this helpful:
Works Great!
I used this to replace my Arduino Uno and it works perfectly!
Excellent for teaching Arduino Programming
I am teaching another round of Intro to Programming using the Arduino classes at the K5COW Cowtown Amateur Radio Club in Fort Worth, TX. The RedBoard makes an ideal platform to begin learning to program. The students in the class quickly progress from blinking the LED, to sounding a piezo beeper, to sending their name and/or radio callsign in Morse Code, to displaying buttons on an attached TFT color touchscreen display, to sampling the outside world & displaying real-time status on the TFT color touchscreen display. Thank you for making this product available for purchase. For anyone looking for a quality Arduino UNO equivalent, I would highly recommend the SparkFun RedBoard as an excellent choice !! MJCulross (KD5RXT)
I love it!
Very easy to use! Does exactly what SparkFun said it was going to do.
Love these boards!!
Great for the price, easy to use. Love the mini-USB connector, SMD components, etc. This is my go-to board for smaller projects.
Works like it should
No problems getting running with the Arduino IDE, works great.
Works okay, is a hassle to get working with MacOS
This seems to work fine as a cheap Arduino alternative. Getting the FTDI working with Mac was a pretty big hassle, though. Once that part was accomplished, everything works fine.
Does the job great
Sparkfun’s arduino uno version is great, no reason not to choose it over alternatives.
Thanks
Works great, looks great
Easy to use, works perfectly, and saves you money!
This thing just works.
I bought this to replace a genuine UNO that I had to “donate” to a robotics project that my wife and I ran for her elementary school. This is not my first RedBoard either. I think they are just great.
Really great … I liked the board with the lights … all my projects are tested with it. really loved it more than the ordinary UNO board. thanks for this.
Great Arduino for a few bucks less.
Works great. Good price. We had to rummage around the house for the right USB cable, but eventually found a selection of them.
Cheap, easy and versatile
I didn’t know anything about Arduino or programming before I bought this, but in less than a week, thanks to all the freely available code out there, I was able to connect two analogs and one digital sensor - piezo, FlexiForce, and 9DOF - and am already generating real-time data for a school project. I still don’t understand some (most?) of the quirks of the Arduino language, but I am assimilating it almost unconsciously. As for the board, you really can’t beat it for size, price, and functionality. I also give a tip of the hat to SerialChart for providing free access to their serial data monitoring software. It’s simple and it does what I need for now without fighting with MatLab or other software. Happy to be a new member of the community.
Did exactly what I needed
The RedBoard did what I needed. This was my first Sparkfun project and when I had some questions, your technical support was available via email and answered my questions within about 24 hours with good answers. It has been easy to work with. The tutorials are very helpful. I’m not an engineer and I’ve been able to do what I wanted so far. I’m now getting in a more sophisticated project and hopefully it will work as well.
Works fine.
just like Arduino
Works as expected
Overwrote the boot loader and use an AVR-ISP-MK2 to upload HEX files. Works as expected. Board quality seems high.
An Awesome Board
The only reason why I didn’t give 5 stars is because of shipping. Which I had to wait 2 and half weeks to receive the board, but it was worth the wait. I love how all of the components are surface mounted on this board.
Love this board
I use these for all my Arduino projects.
Great arduino boards!
This boards are very reliable, have a great price and great support :D
Fun and powerful device
I was able to quickly set this device with the help of my son. He used one in school which got me interested. Ive been programming for work for the past 10 yesrs so its pretty easy to do basic things or find the code on the internet. I’ve been able to make a display and a countdown timer. With my son’s help we’ve figured out how to use a reed switch and light up different LEDs. End state is a tchometer and speedometer combo for my 1976 RD400. Having fun along the way is a plus.
Excellent product
Performs as expected, and meets all the requirements.
Barrel jack obstructs use of shield (ardumoto); had to desolder barrel jack for good fit.
Does it come with a usb connector? Can’t tell from the description…
It does come with the USB port on the board, but you will need your own cable.
Great but : Please add a usb C port !!!!
I presume this is different… different product code… from device of same name in list at https://www.sparkfun.com/arduino_guide. Device there shown as retired. I didn’t see this there, so didn’t realise there were two, was confused. Took a while to notice the different product codes.
Noticed by me also. This incarnation DEV-13975 of the RedBoard does not appear to be included in the table of boards listed in Sparkfun’s Arduino Buying Guide linked sparkfun.com/arduino_guide at the end of this product description, even though the older RedBoard DEV-12757 is listed at the very top of that table as retired.
Since the input voltage is 7-15V does this mean it cannot be powered from the USB cable (5v) alone?
You can power the board from USB through the USB socket. The 7-15 volt limitation is only if you use the barrel jack that’s to the right of the USB socket.
I am looking for an “UNO” compatible solution that will operate at 3.3v. Is there a 3.3v “UNO” compatible solution?
I am typically talking to LCD modules that have many bi-directional lines, so 3.3v to 5v conversion chips are numerous and messy.
That depends on what part of the Uno needs to be compatible. The Arduino Pro and Pro Mini use a different bootloader so they are not considered Uno compatible (and have slightly different hardware). But both boards use the ATMega328 and so should be compatible. There will always be a few differences including ATMega328s not being able to run at 16MHz at 3.3V (and still be in spec).
Any important differences we should know about, compared to https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12757 ? I didn’t spot any looking at the two versions of the schematic. Literally the only substantive difference I spotted was a change in the value of R2 (current limiter for power LED LED2) from 1k to 4.7k.
Is that the resistor to the green LED? if so I’m glad since it was really bright.
The only other thing I can think of was that we removed the 3.3V line from the FTDI chip. When people were powering the board over anything other than USB there was enough power running to the chip that it affected the RX and TX lines. Now if the board is not powered over USB the FTDI chip gets absolutely no power. All in all the changes were all similarly small.