-  By Mad_z

The Arduino Uno launched on the 26th September 2010 replacing the Arduino Duemilanove.  Just as I had got my tongue around pronouncing 'Duemilanove'  they go and simplify it.  We have had a fair amount of interest over them and some good feedback via woopra. Feel free to leave your review on the Uno against the product page!  

Sales:

Interestingly to me,  the sales of the 'Duemilanove' are still strong which i guess is people still seeing all the documentation and examples around the older board. Where we might have sold 100 Arduino Duemilanove in a time period before, we are now selling maybe 50 Unos and 50 Duemilanoves.  Stock of the Duemilanove will be around for a while longer - I'm guessing end of Jan '11 - but once the bloggers start showing off the cool new projects with the Uno, I'm sure demand for them will take off.

Sales on other boards such as the TwentyTen,  the Netduino, the Fez Domino,  Diavolino and Freeduino Kit have all remained pretty constant.

Hardware:

Hardware wise they replaced the FTDI chipset with a custom made usb-serial converter built with an Atmel ATmega8U2.  This provides faster transfer speeds and does not require the install of any drivers on mac and linux (Yay! for Mac and Linux users), though still requires setup on windows.  The Uno like the Duemilanove can either be powered by the USB or by an external power supply of 6 to 20 volts. The USB chip can now be reprogramed to make the board show up as a number of different USB devises (eg.  Mice, Joystick....)

Some interesting projects with this have already appeared along these lines:

Arduino Uno as Joystick

Arduino Forum User [ant.b] has shared his personal Arduino UNO hack with other LUFA firmwares. He tries to turn an Arduino UNO in a Joystick, uploading a new firmware on the 8u2, and summarize it in a very useful step by step guide.

The Frequently asked Questions:

Q.  Is there still weird spacing between the two 8-pin headers?

A.  Yes....yes there is...but this means all your old prototyping shields fit nicely  :)   and that offset headers can still be useful.

Q. Is it compatible with <insert shield name>? 

A. Yes. The spacing, core chip and power supply are still the same.

Q.  Does it fit in the baseplate / case of the Duemilanove?

A.  Yes.  They are the same size.

Q. Does it have a power switch?

A.  No.  Still have to yank the cable.

Q. When i have the Uno plugged in via USB & had an external power supply on the board my PC wont start up.....

A. The Arduino guys know about this.  Make sure that when your PC is starting up you dont have the USB plugged in.

Q,  Are the quality of the board inferior?

A.  Personally I would say No.  We have sold a fair few of these now, and for the most part people have been positive.  There were a few negative review early on and these were address by Arduino themselves.  But ultimately as with any product on our site....if you aren't happy we will replace it  :)