Bridgetek/FTDI's NerO is a reference design for an energy efficient Arduino UNO compatible board based on the ATMEGA328 with the FTDI FT231X USB-UART, capable of operating at 5 V with a full 1 A while remaining cool to the touch. Many embedded system designs will need quite a substantial amount of current in order to power all the elements, such as a TFT display, drive a motor, illuminate LEDs, maintain a WLAN datalink, and more. This can easily add up to close to 400 mA or 500mA (in some cases it might be closer to 1 A). With a standard UNO board, the LDO voltage regulator will tend to dissipate heat when handling these sorts of currents, pushing the temperature to over 100°C. This inefficient operation means that the power consumption is raised as energy is unnecessarily wasted. It can also lead to reliability problems.

NerO is capable of supplying a full 1 A with its temperature being well below 100°C at maximum load. This Arduino UNO R3 compatible board covers an input voltage of 7 V to 20 V (with 9 V or 12 V recommended). It is supplied with FCC and CE certification so operational integrity is assured. NerO has a 16 MHz ATmega328 microcontroller with Optiboot bootloader. FTDI’s FT231XS takes care of USB connectivity providing more reliable communications and FTDI’s renowned drivers and support. A micro-USB connector is used on the board. NerO has 14 digital interface pins plus 6 analog inputs. As the status and PWR LEDs are located at the edge of the PCB, it ensures they remain fully visible even when an Arduino shield has been attached. An on/off switch allows the unit to be powered up or down as needed.

There are three types of modules for selection:
• NerO-LP1 with 2.54 mm pitch female header with long shield pins
• NerO-SP1 with 2.54 mm pitch female header with short shield pins
• NerO-NP1 with spare shield pins but not mounted (provide long shield pins externally)