Smart Swaps For Hard To Find Boards

We can’t hardly wait for the chip shortage to be over and dev boards to be abundant again, but instead of waiting for somebody to fix the supply chain, we’ve gathered a list of near substitutes and potential replacements for your next project. Unsatisfied with back-orders for your favorite Raspberry Pi or Arduino? Use the infographic below to find an alternative — maybe it’ll turn out to be your new favorite thing!

editors note: This article was published in Make Magazine issue 83 (November), so check the stock levels! some items might actually be back in stock now

NOW BOARDING: Smart Swaps

Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense – at Arduino

• Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect — same form factor but RP2040 (Dual M0+) instead of nRF52840 (M4)
• Arduino Nano Every — same FF but 8-bit ATMega4809 vs. 32-bit nRF52840

BBC micro:bit V2 – at Adafruit

• Adafruit CLUE — same FF, similar nRF, but 240px display instead of 5×5 LEDs
• ELECFREAKS Pico:ed V2 — same FF but RP2040-based and larger/denser 7×18 LED matrix

PJRC Teensy 4.0 – At PJRC.com

• PJRC Teensy 4.1 — larger FF bit adds more Flash, mSD slot, Ethernet pins
• SparkFun MicroMod Teensy Processor — same chip in SFE’s MicroMod ecosystem (requires MicroMod carrier)
• Arduino Portenta H7 Lite — kind of a different class, but also M7-based if you really need that grunt (almost 4x the cost though)

Raspberry Pi 4, Model B* – at sparkfun

• Rock Pi 4 Model C+ — 64-bit Rockchip RK3399 (dual-core Cortex-A72, quad-core Cortex-A53) in Pi FF
• Khadas VIM4 — 64-bit Amlogic A311D2 (quad-core Cortex-A73, quad-core Cortex-A53) w/ Pi-compatible 40-pin header
• DFRobot LatteLanda 3 Delta — 64-bit Intel Celeron N5105 (quad-core x86-64) w/ own FF and tons of I/O
• BeagleBone family — stalwart SBC range — cost/capabilities vary (own FF)
• PINE64 Quartz64 Model B — 64-bit quad-core Rockchip RK3566 in Pi FF

*note that non-Pi options may lack community/support

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W – at Adafruit

• MangoPi MQ Pro — same FF, Allwinner D1 RISC-V core
• Banana Pi M2 Zero — same FF, quad-core Cortex A7 Allwinner
• OrangePi Zero — own/larger FF, quad-core Cortex A7 Allwinner
• NanoPi M1 Plus — own/larger FF, quad-core Cortex A7 Allwinner