The KitTen is an Arduino compatible board supplied as a kit using through-hole parts for easy assembly.
It may be easy to build, but it's still full-featured and high-performance. If you compare it to typical Arduino-compatible kits you'll see that it doesn't scrimp on anything: in fact our design has more smoothing capacitors alone than the entire parts count of most other kits! It even includes a 3.3V regulator to allow it to use shields that require 3.3V, which is not something you see in typical kits.
The KitTen has the following features:
Prototyping area
For those projects where you don't need the extra size or expense of a shield, the KitTen has its own standard prototyping area taking up a quarter of the board. Great for quick sensor and IC projects. There's extra power pads underneath for neat connections.
LEDs visible on the edge
Wondered what your Arduino was doing? We've placed a blue Power LED and red D13 LED on the right edge of the board so you can see what's going on even with a shield fitted on top.
Connector for FTDI USB cable
Use a commonly-available FTDI USB cable (not included) to upload sketches to your KitTen directly from the Arduino IDE.
Overlay guide where you need it
When you're soldering your project, it's good to know what you're connecting to! All of our boards and shields have a thorough pinout and guide printed on the bottom as well as the top, so when you're soldering underneath there's no need to flip the board over constantly.
Top spec MCU
Every KitTen includes the higher specification ATmega328P Microcontroller, and we've pre-loaded it with the Arduino bootloader. Just plug it in, launch the Arduino IDE, and you'll be running your own programs in no time.
D13 pin works for everything
The digital I/O pin 13 functionality has been fixed: the D13 indicator LED is isolated from the D13 pin using a MOSFET so that it no longer loads up this pin when you use it as an input.
Mounting holes and power pads
We've included a fourth mounting hole in the bottom left in the same location as the fourth hole on the Arduino Uno so there are no more wobbly board troubles if you're fitting it to a case. Helpful markings for the power jack size, polarity and voltage are right there on the board when you need them.
5V and 3.3V voltage regulators
Many Arduino-compatible kits don't provide both 5V and 3.3V voltage regulators, preventing you from using shields that require a 3.3V supply. We've included both 5V and 3.3V regulators to ensure the KitTen is compatible with all Arduino shields.
It's all in the same place
The power jack, headers and ICSP are all in exactly the same location as Arduino standard boards. The KitTen is perfectly compatible with all Arduino Duemilanove shields, projects and sketches.
What's in the box?
- Gold-plated Freetronics KitTen PCB with overlay on both top and bottom.
- A top-spec ATmega328P MCU pre-loaded with the Arduino bootloader.
- All the required supporting parts.
- The fully illustrated KitTen Assembly Guide.
- Our Getting Started guide.
You will also need a 5V FTDI USB-to-Serial cable or a USB Serial Adapter to upload sketches to your KitTen once it has been assembled. You only need one cable or adapter no matter how many KitTens you build.
Downloads
