You asked for it. You got it.

There has been a growing clamor from students for us to build a truly low cost Arduino UNO compatible board, one that has all the functionalities of the Arduino UNO* , but at a price that is comparable to those cheap China boards, all without sacrificing quality.

Now that is a tall order indeed. We spent the last couple of years trying to figure out how we can come up with such product at low cost. How can you build something and sell it at a profit for a price less than half of the total cost of the components used in the board? Chinese manufacturers can because they have the required volume that gives them a bargaining power to demand substantial discounts from component vendors. Combined that with their low manufacturing costs ( and non existent quality controls by some manufacturers), and their tax free privileges, there is simply no way we small local manufacturers can compete from a price standpoint.

But that doesn't mean we should not give it a try. So we decided to go ahead with a low cost Arduino UNO compatible board, this is to be known as the gizDuino UNO Student Edition, or gizDuino UNO -SE.


 This special priced product will be available for sale to students and teachers ONLY.


gizDuino UNO-SE

gizDuino UNO-SE uses the same microcontroller core (ATMEGA328P) as the Arduino UNO , hence, there will be no code compatibility issue - if it runs with Arduino UNO, it will run on a gizDuino UNO-SE without any modification. It has the same I/O pin layout, ensuring compatibility will all Arduino UNO and gizDuino shields, and connects with the Arduino IDE by selecting Arduino UNO in the board selection menu.



One of the strategies we adopted to get for a low price is to use the same USB bridge that is universally used in all Chinese UNO compatible, the CH340 chip. This chip may require you to install USB drivers on your PC, and may require additional tweaking if you connect it with Linux or IOs (Apple) machine. The thing is, if you have the experience working with Chinese UNO compatibles, you won't have difficulties setting up the gizDuino UNO-SE.


Also, we greatly simplified the power supply routing of the gizDuino UNO -SE. The only difference that you will notice, compared to the Arduino UNO , is +5V power will not be available on the USB port when the gizDuino is not connected to a PC. We can't imagine any foreseeable issue about  this change, unless perhaps if you use the gizDuino USB port for an unlikely purpose, like as using it as a charger.



Finally, we will be losing money for every gizDuino UNO-SE we sell. For this reason, this special priced product will be available for sale to students and teachers ONLY, in a limited quantity per purchase. Something we would like to avoid is to request for a student I.D. when you purchase this product, but please bring one, in case a situation arise when we have to see your I.D. :-)


Designed and Made in the Philippines. Support our local products.

Click to go to gizDuino UNO_SE product page

*Arduino and Arduino UNO are registered trademarks of Arduino AG.