Friday, January 30, 2015

Product review of CT-UNO by Cytron


I received my CT-UNO, an UNO board made by Cytron and I'm doing a short review on this board.

CT-UNO

The first question is, why another UNO board ?  The answer would be answered in my short review below.

This CT-UNO was used as part of the starter kit during my Penang Mini Maker Faire Arduino workshop in November.

The main factor I really like about this is the Micro-USB port instead of the gigantic USB B plug used by regular Arduino UNO boards. With so many USB micro cables all around, having a USB micro is a good decision made by Cytron.

Secondly, I always like the FTDI USB Serial chip. I'm still using the FTDI Breakout board on a regular basis to program the Arduino Mini Pro ...

FTDI FT23x

On the subject of FTDI board, there is an Android app called FTDI UART Terminal that can accept a FTDI USB-Serial device so that you can plug in the CT-UNO directly to the Android Smatphone and view the Serial Monitor using this app with an USB OTG cable.


CT-UNO with FTDI connected to Android Smarthphone

As per most of the newer UNO board, this is a SMD version of the atmega328P, so you cannot remove the IC.

ATMEGA328 SMD

Another thing I really like about this board is that you can directly solder wires to the pins below the board for permanent connections. Here are some pictures of the CT-UNO on the sides and below the board.

Sides holes

Side holes
CT-UNO back
Last but not least, this board is "Made in Malaysia", so please support Malaysian made products.
The only thing I didn't like about this board is the white colour of the PCB silkscreen but this is my personal opinion.

Overall, it is a very usable UNO board and very good to view Serial Monitor on Android Smartphone that support USB OTG cable.

This product is on Cytron online store.

A special thanks to Vincent Kok for sending me this CT-UNO for review.

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