How many more times must we open with “It’s been another crazy year for
the industry” before Harold Ramis’ estate comes after us for ripping off his
1993 hit Groundhog Day? Well, this will not be the year to buck that trend, as
supply chain issues continue to force companies to get creative with sourcing
in-demand chips, or designing boards for the components they can actually get,
or both. This shift to supply-based design, and the widespread adoption of the
RP2040 and ESP32 for maker projects, are just a few of the seismic changes
that shaped this year’s Make: Guide to Boards. Read on for our comparison of 79
reliable stalwarts, hot newcomers, and smart picks that are actually in stock!
We had a blast this year going hands-on
with boards, poring over specs, and talking
to the community in order to come up with
our list of 12 standout New & Notable boards
for 2022. Find out more about how we made
our picks — and what makes each board
a top candidate for your next project!
History Repeating
...AND THEN THERE WERE TWO
RP2040 AND ESP32 RISE ABOVE THE SHORTAGES
BOARD IN THE HOUSE
That the last few years have been difficult for
the electronics industry is no secret. Shortages
in a range of components, from processors
to simple power-management ICs, have
necessitated some rapid rethinking when it
comes to designing development boards.
Last year we celebrated the launch of Raspberry
Pi’s RP2040, the company’s first in-house silicon and
first microcontroller. Little did we know how popular
it would become: With Raspberry Pi working hard
to ensure a steady supply in both reel and single-
chip quantities and offering aggressive pricing, the
RP2040 has become the go-to chip for those who’ve
found stock of their usual microcontrollers wanting.
“We’d expected to pick up RP2040 customers in
2022, but that they’d still be at the prototyping and
early production stage,” Raspberry Pi CEO Eben
Upton tells us. “There’s certainly a lot of this going
on — JLCPCB report that they’ve seen over 1,100
distinct RP2040-based designs in their first year
of availability — but we’re also seeing full-scale
OEM orders, probably driven by people rapidly
Point your Digi-Key AR app at the
image to the right to play the video
Grab your boards at digikey.com/boards2
Scan the QR
code to get the
Digi-Key AR
App and see the
guide come to
life in dynamic
AUGMENTED
REALITY!
GUIDE TO BOARDS 2022
MICROCONTROLLERS (MCU)
Adafruit Circuit
Playground Bluefruit
Adafruit CLUE
Adafruit Feather
RP2040
★
NEW & NOTABLE
★
Adafruit Flora
Adafruit FunHouse
Adafruit KB2040
Adafruit Metro
Mini 328 V2
$25
$45
$12
$15
$35
$9
$15
2.0" dia.
2.0"×1.6"
2.0"×0.9"×0.3"
1.75" dia.
3.35"×2.2"
×0.43"
1.4"×0.7"×0.2"
1.7"×0.7"
1MB flash,
256kB RAM,
2MB QSPI Flash
1MB flash,
256kB RAM,
2MB QSPI flash
264kB SRAM,
8MB SPI flash
32kB flash,
2.5kB SRAM
4MB flash,
2MB PSRAM
264kB RAM,
8MB SPI flash
2kB RAM,
32kB flash
Board Name Price
Dimensions
Software
Clock
Speed
Processor Memory
Digital Pins
Arduino IDE, CircuitPython
Arduino IDE, CircuitPython
CircuitPython,
MicroPython,
Arduino IDE, C/C++
Arduino IDE
CircuitPython,
Arduino IDE
CircuitPython,
MicroPython,
Arduino IDE, C/C++
Arduino IDE
32-bit Nordic nRF52840
(single-core Cortex-M4F)
32-bit Nordic nRF52840
(single-core Cortex-M4F)
32-bit RP2040
(dual-core Cortex-M0+)
8-bit ATmega32u4
32-bit ESP32-S2
(single-core Xtensa LX7)
32-bit RP2040
(dual-core Cortex-M0+)
8-bit ATmega328
(single-core AVR)
8
18
21
8
5
20
20
64MHz
64MHz
125MHz
8MHz
240MHz
133MHz
16MHz
M83_Outsert01-12_BGuide2022_F2.indd 2M83_Outsert01-12_BGuide2022_F2.indd 2 10/11/22 1:14 PM10/11/22 1:14 PM
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