Quin Etnyre has been into all things Arduino since he was a kid. He already has 28 Instructables published, founded his own company called Qtechknow in 2012 which sells ArduSensors and a line of fun and educational kits and oh, he is still just 14 years old.

His latest Arduino-based design is the Qduino Mini which is the first tiny Arduino compatible board to incorporate a battery charger and fuel gauge to let you know when the battery needs recharging.

The Qduino Mini is 1 inch by 1.5 inches and weighs just 5 grams which makes it ideal for use on airborne projects such as quadcopters, drones or high altitude balloons.

Main features of the Qduino Mini:

  • ATmega32U4 Processor - Arduino Leonardo compatible
  • 32 KB Flash storage
  • 2.5 KB SRAM
  • 1KB EEPROM
  • 3.3 V @ 8 MHz
  • 20 digital I/O // 14 dedicated
  • 12 analog Channels // 6 dedicated
  • 7 digital I/O also PWM channels
  • SPI, I2C, UART available
  • LED Indicators for: ON, charge status, TX, RX, D13
  • TPS78233 3.3 V 150 mA regulator
  • MCP73832 LiPo battery charger
  • MAX17048 LiPo battery fuel gauge

Quin has chosen to crowdfund the Qduino Mini on Kickstarter. The campaign has now run its course and succeeded in raising close to four times the original goal.