Uno R3 Based Board, CH340G Controller

If you know Arduino's you know that it is an open sourced hardware device. This means that reference files and designs are freely provided. This means that high quality boards can be made to the exact same parts, quality, functionality, and compatibility as the official released boards. This board is based on those designs but has been updated to provide an even more affordable solution with a few extra features.

What are the differences between an official Arduino Uno and a Uno R3 with CH340 Controller?

There are 3 main differences between these boards:

1. The through hole ATMEGA328P-PU has been replaced with a surface mount ATMEGA328P-AU. These are exactly the same chips just in different packages, by using the surface mount version the cost of production and parts is reduced making the new one more affordable.

2. The Atmega16U2 USB-to-Serial converter has been replaced with a CH340G USB-to-Serial converter again helping to reduce production cost and making it more affordable.

3. There is an extra row of solder points for the GPIO pins beside the female headers as well as additional solder points for ISCP connections. This allows you to customize how you connect your Arduino based project to the world.

Other then that this board is built folloing the specifications of the Arduino Uno R3, which has the following new features:

• 1.0 pinout: added SDA and SCL pins that are near to the AREF pin and two other new pins placed near to the RESET pin, the IOREF that allow the shields to adapt to the voltage provided from the board. In future, shields will be compatible with both the board that uses the AVR, which operates with 5V and with the Arduino Due that operates with 3.3V. The second one is a not connected pin, that is reserved for future purposes.
• Stronger RESET circuit.

Not sure what an Arduino is?

The Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328. It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz ceramic resonator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started.