Vinciduino is an “open hardware” project, a board with an 8-bit microcontroller similar to the upcoming Arduino Leonardo.

It is an open project where anyone can be part of the design team; anyone can bring knowledge, comments and ideas for developing either an Arduino compatible board or a programmable board using the Atmel environment without an external programmer.

The main difference with other similar “open hardware” projects is that VinciDuino emphasizes its dissemination. It is not a board designed to be sold or manufactured in large quantities but instead is designed for anyone to assemble it at home that is why it uses the largest possible SMD components, unlike other similar projects the Vinciduino team provides a shopping cart list with a dealer to have all the components ready to be purchased although you can choose the one of your preference.

The cost tries to reach the minimum possible in order to spread the Vinciduino board concept and the real open hardware’s spirit.

Cost Transparency is a must when it comes to “open hardware” especially when a community works selflessly.

On this page you will find all the information needed to order the electronic components and make the board from scratch, also you will find tutorials to start using the board and projects undertaken by its users.

Currently the latest version of the board is Rev C, you can find all the related files in the download section.

This board is ideal for:

• People who want to learn how to solder SMD components and make the process of ordering a PCB and mount it from scratch. If you want to order a few you just go to the download section and download the files needed by the PCB manufacturer. You can use the shopping cart list link and go directly to the electronic components dealer and buy it online without the hassle of choosing the components then just assemble the board as explained in the tutorials. The cost of ordering a small batch of 8 units is approximately 16 € per board (aprox. 18 USD).

• People who want to start programming AVR microcontrollers without using the Arduino environment and instead using avr-gcc and AVR Studio IDE (Windows) or others. The microcontroller comes with an Atmel bootloader so that once the board is assembled you can load software through the USB port on the PC without having to buy an external programmers. With the free tools offered by Atmel and Vinciduino you are set to start your projects with an 8bit microcontroller from Atmel.

• You can also program Vinciduino with the Arduino environment and libraries. For little money you can buy or assemble the Vinciduino board fully compatible with the upcoming Arduino Leonardo. If you assemble the board from scratch you can load the bootloader using Arduino as ISP or using an external programmer.

• For those who want to participate in the design of the board  please join the team as it is an open project where anyone can participate, currently we use the forum hosted in the Arduino website (thanks to the Arduino team for the Arduino Forum in Spanish, where this project was born).

• All information contained herein is licensed under CC BY-SA, so if someone wants to use this information to assemble kits, sell boards, etc. … feel free to do it.

vinciDuino is an “open hardware” project made in Spain. We have taken into account all possible paths for spreading this idea. Giving the shopping cart list of electronic components and designing the board so it can be individually built by end users are key points. We believe that these key points should be considered and addressed by anyone who designs a project with the label of “open hardware”.