We originally heard about the FemtoDuino last year. It looked good enough and tiny enough, but we didn’t really have a need for it. recently though, we started on a new project (which you can follow on the forums!) which required an easy modification to an existing circuit. space and weight were quite crucial so we made a decision to pick up a couple femtoduinos at $25 each, and give them a try.

These things are tiny. Their foot print is 20.7×15.2mm. You can see in the picture below, with a quarter for reference. Malutki. Frankly, there’s not much to say about them. They’re an Atmega328 that is arduino compatible. I plan on using my redbull Arduino to program this thing, considering that you need to bring your own serial interface.

If you’re anything like me, you have atrociously sloppy soldering and shaky shaky hands. I was a bit concerned about actually getting those wires soldered in without bridging the pads. I was able to pull it off though.  Here’s a video so you can see how horrible my soldering technique and equipment are.

I really don’t have any complaints about this thing, it works just like an arduino but smaller. The closest thing to a problem is that the silk screening is a bit blurry making it tough to read which pins are what. It isn’t horrible, but it isn’t best either.  We really couldn’t think of much else so we made a decision a haiku would cover it.

one arduino
much smaller than a quarter
Femtoduino

Of course, if you want to follow along and see if I end up with complaints, you can enjoy me build these battling star wars themed R/C cars.