Press Releases

Cloud Lifts with Availability of New Wireless Arduino Board from RS Components

New Arduino Yun creates open-source design environment for Internet of Things applications

Taiwan, 27 November 2013 :

RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, is now stocking Arduino Yun, the first member of a new family of wireless products that integrate the open-source Arduino architecture with Linux.

Arduino Yun, meaning 'cloud' in Chinese language, combines the existing Arduino Leonardo, based on Atmel's ATmega32u4 8-bit microcontroller, with an embedded Atheros AR9331 Wi-Fi system-on-chip (SoC) running Linino, a MIPS GNU/Linux variant of OpenWRT. The principal feature of the new board is a Bridge library, which makes it easy to navigate complex web services that use verbose, RAM-intensive text-based formats such as XML by delegating all network connections and processing of HTTP transactions to the Linux-based SoC.

In common with Arduino Leonardo, the Yun has features such as 14 digital input/output pins, seven pulse width modulation (PWM) channels and 12 analog inputs. It also incorporates a 16MHz crystal oscillator and a microUSB connector plus a Standard-A type USB connection and a PoE compatible microSD card socket for additional storage. Once the Yun is powered up for the first time it functions as a Wi-Fi access point, creating a Wi-Fi network called 'Arduino'. The board can then be configured by entering a Wi-Fi network name and password.

"The Yun is a welcome addition to the Arduino family for anyone wishing to develop interactive objects and environments," said Jon Boxall, Global Head of Semiconductors, RS Components. "Its availability is especially timely for the burgeoning Internet of Things market, opening the door to a whole host of new open-source design opportunities and applications that were previously out of reach using existing Arduino boards."

The new Arduino Yun, plus other members of the Arduino family, is available to purchase direct from RS stock for same-day despatch along with a range of extension boards (shields).