UC3duino

I like the 8-bit Arduino, but I have more experience on the 32-bit AVR (UC3), so I wanted to create a board based on the Arduino form factor, but with a UC3 device. This page will be dedicated to this project.

I started on this project some time ago, an I finally got around to make a page about it. Hopefully someone will find this interesting.

The Name: UC3duinoL3
I'm not a very creative person when it comes to names, I actually name my projects by numbers (and a name), but I had to come up with a good name for this one. Since there is so many Arduino clones out there it can be a challenge to find a name that is not used and at the same time not too bad. I thought that since I was going to use a UC3 device and no one else have made a Arduino like board using this device so far I could as well use UC3 as part of the name. At least it gives you a hint on what the board is. At first I just called it UC3duino, but then I decided that I could add the device family name also, so my first board is UC3duinoL3.

The Device
The newest family member to the UC3 device series is the L series. It comes with different features. L0 does not have USB, so cant use that one. L3 and L4 both has USB, but L3 has more features, so I decided to use that one. Looking back L4 would probably be better suited for this board as the 64pin package was hard to route on a two layer board.

The Design: Schematic
The design was made using EagleCAD PCB design software. For a large part it is based on existing Arduino designs. The finished schematic for revision 1.0.1 is shown below.

The Design: Layout
The layout was limited to two layers to fit the free license of EagleCAD. USB routing does not comply with the USB requirements, but it still works (it was a bit of a gamble, but since the traces are short, I hoped that it was going to work, and it does). See the finished layout for revision 1.0.1 is shown below.

The board was sent to pcbcart.com for manufacturing. They provide good quality and service, and also provided me with some feedback on issues with my design so that I was able to correct the issues before the board was manufactured.

PCB Assembly
Nothing special to tell here. Started with the MCU, then caps, resistors, regulators, and so on. Small parts first, then working my way up taking bigger and bigger parts. Here are some pictures (of revision 1.0.0):

Software
At some point I was working on modifications to the Arduino software package to work with this device, I got it partly working. Then I noticed that the Arduino team also was working on a 32-bit platform, and support for different devices, so I decided that I would not continue my work on the software since the approach used by the Arduino team seemed to be a bit different, and I want this board to be compatible with the Arduino framework at some point. For now I'm using AVR Studio 5.1 and the ASF to program this board.

My next step will be to make whatever is needed to make this board work with the Arduino software package, but I will probably wait for the Arduino team to officially come out with support for their 32 bit devices before I do this. Why? To make sure this board becomes compatible with their 32 bit boards. Then maybe make a new revision fixing some of the issues with the current design (nothing critical), and maybe make a L4 version of the board.

Downloads
EagleCAD schematics and PCB layout can be downloaded here.

License
All files are provided "AS IS" with bugs. Distributed under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. You are free to download, use and modify these files as long as you give credit to Arduino and UC3duino and release your designs under the same license. Please visit the Arduino homepage for more information about the Arduino prototyping platform.