Netduino was an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

electronics prototyping platform based on the

.NET Micro Framework The .NET Micro Framework (NETMF) is a .NET Framework platform for resource-constrained devices with at least 512 kB of flash and 256 kB of random-access memory (RAM). It includes a small version of the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR ...

. It uses the ARM Cortex-M

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in 32-bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calculation ...

RISC In computer engineering, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a complex instruction set comput ...

ARM processor core as a

ARM-

microcontroller A microcontroller (MCU for ''microcontroller unit'', often also MC, UC, or μC) is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable i ...

. The Netduino

boards Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboard, ...

(except the discontinued Mini and Go models) are designed to be pin-compatible with most Arduino shields. Applications can be built on Windows (with Visual Studio), or on Mac OS (with Xamarin Studio). The platform is similar in concept to the Arduino platform, but is generally more powerful and instead of writing applications in C/C++ or Wiring (essentially, C++ without header files), applications are written in C#, which brings powerful, high-level language constructs to the toolbox such as threading, event handling, automatic garbage collection, and more.

Development

Netduino was invented by Chris Walker, founder of Secret Labs. The platform was actively supported by Wilderness Labs and had an active open source community. Some time in 2020 Wilderness Labs discontinued Netduino and completely superseded it by Meadow, an STM32F7-based microcontroller board with .NET Standard.

Hardware

The Netduino family is based on the Cortex-M Micro Processor running the .NET Micro Framework (NETMF) v4.3. Development can be done on both Windows, with Visual Studio, or with Xamarin Studio on Mac OS X. IO includes 22 General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) ports, 6 of which support hardware Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) generation, 4 UARTs (serial communication), I2C, and SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface Bus). The Netduino family consists of the Netduino 3, Netduino 2, and the original Netduino 1 lines. The original Netduino (1st generation) and Netduino Mini (also 1st generation), have been replaced by the much more powerful Netduino 2 and 3 lines.

Netduino 3

The Netduino 3 is based on a Cortex-M4 microcontroller running at 168 MHz with 384 KB of flash storage and 164 KB of RAM. Netduino 3 is offered in 3 different models, the N3 base model, N3 Ethernet model, and the N3 WiFi model; which vary by their internet connectivity mode and their code/flash storage size. All N3 models support persistent storage with SD cards up to 2GB. Both the Ethernet and WiFi models have a Micro SD slot built in to the board. The base model can use SD cards via most Arduino SD Card add-on shields. The N3 technical specifications are as follows:

Netduino 2

Netduino 2 is offered in 2 different models, the N2 base model as well as the N2+, which adds 10Mb Ethernet.

Discontinued Models

The original Netduino forum is archived and contains historical and technical information about the original Netduino boards and development.

Netduino 1

The original Netduino was based on an

Atmel Atmel Corporation was a creator and manufacturer of semiconductors before being subsumed by Microchip Technology in 2016. Atmel was founded in 1984. The company focused on embedded systems built around microcontrollers. Its products included micr ...

AT91SAM7X processor running at 48 MHz.

Netduino Plus

The Netduino Plus added an onboard Ethernet port and a

microSD Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDis ...

card reader.

Netduino Mini

The Netduino mini was a smaller breadboard mountable Netduino in a DIP package.

Netduino Go

With Netduino Go, all the peripherals were virtualized, with 8 gobus ports replacing the Arduino headers. Additional modules could be added through these ports, and each module had a small microchip which works together with the mainboard.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://netduino.com Open hardware electronic devices Microcontroller software Robotics hardware