Jolly Announced Onboard Wi-Fi to Arduino Uno Boards

Arduino Uno microcontroller has become a well-known device within the Maker community. It is a respected device since it has been the engine behind thousands of projects and paved the way for the careers of numerous makers. If you have an Uno and you’re interested, you might want to pull the ATMega328 from them to upgrade it using a Jolly, a device that can bring Wi-Fi to the Uno. The project is scheduled to launch being funded through crowdfunding.

Here’s the latest tweet from Jolly; https://twitter.com/Jolly_Device/status/1483757534171344897

The invention by Arduino Co-founder Gianluca Martino. Martino quit the company in 2015. Jolly can be described as an upgraded board to the Uno, which replaces the ATMega328P chip with a newer version, called the ATMega328PB. Jolly includes the embedded ESP8285 wireless module (ESP8266 equivalent with 2MB of flash) with an integrated antenna and 2MB of flash memory, together with a variety of integrated circuits and voltage regulation. Both the ATMega328PB as well as ESP8285 communicate with each other through SPI as well as UART. Similar to how Pimoroni’s Pico Wireless communicates with the Raspberry Pi Pico.

Since the new chip is identical to the previous one, it’s compatible with every project that uses the Uno and maintains the same interface and pinout. It’s not designed to replace the Uno internals, but it can also be added to other projects to function as a standalone module.

Wi-Fi connectivity to Arduino Uno is crucial as more makers transition towards IoT. Arduino is making more of their boards to the internet and offers the cloud-based IoT tool for every version of Arduino and other compatible boards. This means that enabling Wi-Fi through Jolly rather than an additional board (Shield) can breathe fresh life to your Uno without affecting the design or size.

The Kickstarter page is currently saying that the crowdfunding campaign will be launched soon and gives an option to be informed when the campaign begins. Be aware that crowdfunding an idea isn’t an assurance of receiving a finished item. The crowdfunding process is similar to investing because you believe in the cause and wish it to be successful. It is not an item from a store.