Lee Goldberg
EDN
The Qduino Mini embedded processor board which made its debut on Kickstarter earlier this week will make it easier than ever for Arduino enthusiasts to design and build compact, battery-powered projects. Despite its compact 1 in × 1.5 in form factor, the board packs all the punch of its full-sized counterparts and throws in a turnkey battery fuel gauge and charger just for grins.
Even if I didn't know Quin Etnyre, the Qduino's inventor and namesake, I'd still be excited to see this nifty little Arduino board launching on Kickstarter because its compact size and integrated support for LiPo battery charging and management fills an important niche in the Arduino ecosystem. But for the sake of full disclosure I must admit that at least part of my enthusiasm is for this I've followed Quin's career since shortly after he founded Qtechknow.com in 2012 at age 12 as a vehicle to market his inventions.
But I digress. Let's get back to the Qduino.
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| Quin and his Dad showing off some of his Arduino-powered "pets" at the 2014 NY Maker Faire. |
Quin says he came up with the idea of the ¼ size full-function board while he was working on some of his own projects whose form factors had limited space for electronics and made it tough to change batteries (you can see a couple of those projects in the photo above). As a result, his Arduino Leonardo-compatible board sports an 8 MHz ATmega32U4 Processor (32 KB Flash, 2.5 KB SRAM, 1 KB EEPROM), a LiPo Battery Charger and fuel gauge (MCP73832/MAX17048), and a connector for an external LiPo cell (not included due to shipping restrictions). Now you can charge your Arduino-powered project in 1 - 2 hours (depending on battery size) on any standard micro-USB port.
Quin & Co. are developing monitoring code as part of the board's software library which will enable the Qduino to read the battery fuel gauge's digital output and pass the value through its USB serial link. It can also be configured to only send you an alert that when it needs a little extra juice when the charge level falls below a pre-programmed threshold. This is part of a larger application code library and documentation package (design files, including EAGLE board files, schematic, and tutorials) which will be available at no charge when the first Qduino boards are shipped to its supporters this summer.
If you're having second thoughts about buying a computer board designed by a 14-year old, you need to know that Quin has more successful electronic products on the market than most entrepreneurs two or three times his age. And although Quin really is the mastermind behind this not-so-modest enterprise, he does get some guidance from his Mom and Dad. They're good people and great parents who've been enthusiastic supporters of Quin's venture since the early days when he developed a few accessories to make tinkering with Arduino systems faster and easier. This included several boards which allowed components (sensors, buzzers, LEDs etc…) to be connected directly to the Arduino's I/O headers without soldering or jumper wires. He also offers a sensor shield which lets you connect up to four sensors at a time.
Being a boy-genius/entrepreneur seems to agree with Quin, who handles questions from reports and customers with the same ease as a Silicon Valley veteran. But it's easy to see that he's still an enthusiastic teenager at heart when you see the grin on his face as he explains how he developed one of his most popular products (I'm not making this up!), a sensor which transforms an Arduino into a digital fart detector.
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| Qtechknow's ArduSensor Shield accepts up to four plug-in sensors, including a methane (fart) detector. |
Another one of the small but important things that makes this a great deal is that manufacturing and order fulfillment is being handled by Sparkfun, a go-to source for hacker tech products with a reputation for excellent quality – and one of my favorite toy stores. You can buy your own Qduino for $25 on Kickstarter until March 26, with discounts for multi-board buys. LiPo batteries must be purchased separately since shipping restrictions would have made including them cost-prohibitive.
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| The Creator Kit contains a Qduino, a solder-free proto-board and enough LEDs, sensors, switches and other components to start making meaningful DIY projects straight out of the box. |
The only exception to the no-battery rule is the Qtechknow Creator Kit, a slick little prototyping system which includes the Qduino, a LiPo battery + cable, a solderless breadboard, and a nice assortment of components. It's also available as a Kickstarter reward for $80. Delivery to Kickstarter contributors is anticipated to begin in July with orders fulfilled on a first-come/first-served basis.
