New Arduino clones on the market: Orangepip

[voltsandjolts]

Seem to be two boards available: http://www.orangepipboards.com/

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2056035.pdf
http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2056033.pdf

I was curious about who was behind this but its not clear. Trademark has just been applied for but doesn't disclose the applicant as yet, just the UK agent.
https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#details/trademarks/017609835

Most google search results seem to be from CPC / Rapid / AKA Farnell - so maybe they are behind it?

Edit: Rapid are not owned by Farnell, my mistake.

[andersm]

The domain is registered by Rapid, so probably.

[linux-works]

so, they used an orange solder mask.

nothing else changed?

WHY would anyone care?

boggle!

arduino clones are $5.   the market has enough clones.  no one buys italy boards anymore and I'm not seeing the purpose of changing colors.  maybe they just plain ran out of ideas?  seems so lame, though.

[voltsandjolts]

the market has enough clones

Yes, that's why I was curious who actually bothered to do this.
Maybe Farnell want to push there own version to schools/colleges/unis and have the volume in that market to make it worthwhile.

[Monkeh]

Since when are Rapid owned by Farnell?

[voltsandjolts]

Ooops, my bad.

So this is probably Conrad-Rapid making the boards and also being sold through CPC/Farnell.

Cheers.

[phil from seattle]

the market has enough clones

Yes, that's why I was curious who actually bothered to do this.
Maybe Farnell want to push there own version to schools/colleges/unis and have the volume in that market to make it worthwhile.

Crazy when you can buy boatloads of mega clones off ebay/aliX and such for very little money.  Government funds might have some sort of restrictions? Are these made in the UK?  Didn't see anything like that.

[ajb]

Crazy when you can buy boatloads of mega clones off ebay/aliX and such for very little money.  Government funds might have some sort of restrictions? Are these made in the UK?  Didn't see anything like that.

  If I were teaching an introductory class involving Arduinos, I would definitely consider it worthwhile to get the hardware from a reputable supplier.  Sure, most clones are going to be just fine, but even if they're cheap enough to just throw away and grab another one I'd rather not risk a potentially large timesink in dealing with dodgy hardware *on top of* dealing with students' dodgy code and wiring!  For similar reasons I think the socketed DIP version still makes some sense as well.  That doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to get the full-price first-party hardware (although it may be possible to get a good deal for educational projects), but I'd definitely avoid the $2 ebay stuff as long as budget allowed.

[phil from seattle]

The thing is, I've bought plenty of Chinese clone Arduinos and not a single one has been dead on arrival. I bet the failure rate of "official" arduinos is not significantly better than Chinese clones.

[Monkeh]

The thing is, I've bought plenty of Chinese clone Arduinos and not a single one has been dead on arrival. I bet the failure rate of "official" arduinos is not significantly better than Chinese clones.

For the price they charge, they ought to be 100% reliable and manufactured by nude Italian virgins.

Unfortunately, the reality is they're manufactured by minimum wage employees(okay, okay, probably a bit above minimum) who care about them no more than the Chinese ones, and probably have a lower living standard for it.

[HwAoRrDk]

There's a very strange combination of contrary things about these boards.

According to the CPC website listing, the Kona328 is made in China, and they appear to have the hallmarks of a Chinese-designed and produced board - serif font on the silkscreen, generic unbranded parts, AMS1117 regulator. But on the other hand, it uses at ATmega8U2 for the USB interface (not something like a CH340G, like so many Chinese clones) and a resonator for the main AVR's oscillator (not a crystal, again like Chinese clones).

The datasheet appears to have been written by an American, or for a US audience, as it uses US-English spelling (e.g. "center") and terminology (e.g. "wall-wart") and describes the board's dimensions in inches only.

The fact it uses an ATmega8U2 is also slightly strange. Why not a 16U2 like the current Arduino Uno R3? I'm not sure of the reason why Arduino boards moved to the 16U2, but you'd expect a clone to be the same. Unless they're using an older firmware revision that still fits on an 8U2. Also, I wonder whose USB VID/PID they use, as Arduino boards have their own, rather than use the LUFA ones.

And the final thing is, they're not even particularly cheap. CPC have the Kona328 priced at £13.19 inc. VAT. About £10 less than an Arduino board, but still at least 2-4 times the price of a clone.

I don't see anything about these boards that makes them any better than a $5 Chinese clone.

[donotdespisethesnake]

There's a very strange combination of contrary things about these boards.

What's strange about someone creating their own clone product and trying to charge a premium for it? Pretty standard business practice.

Anyway, the Orangepip boards have been around for a couple of years.

[JacquesBBB]

The thing is, I've bought plenty of Chinese clone Arduinos and not a single one has been dead on arrival. I bet the failure rate of "official" arduinos is not significantly better than Chinese clones.

I have used many 2$ mini or nano clones with no problems, but I had several clones of due that failed.

[TomS_]

The high performance ATmega 8-bit AVR RISC-based microcontrollers give OrangePip users enough power and memory to store and run multiple lines of complex code

Marketing really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to come up with that one...

[HwAoRrDk]

What's strange about someone creating their own clone product and trying to charge a premium for it? Pretty standard business practice.

I was only really trying to point out the strange juxtaposition (that's really the word I should have used) of them essentially being just another Chinese-made clone, but with some odd choices in components that doesn't jibe with that.