Arduino co-founder develops new module Jolly to replace Uno processor

The Arduino microcontroller was first released in 2005, fueling the Maker Movement. While more advanced boards have since joined the Arduino line, the basic Uno microcontroller remains popular. Inexpensive, simple to program, and powerful enough for beginners while still having enough power to do interesting things for more advanced users, it forms the basis of countless projects.

Now, Gianluca Martino, one of the original creators of Arduino, has developed a new IoT-focused module that's designed to replace the Uno's standard ATMega328P processor. Dubbed Jolly, it integrates an ESP8285 Wi-Fi adapter and an ATMega328PB, and occupies the same space as the original processor.

IEEE Spectrum spoke with Martino about what the new module brings to the Arduino world.

What was the motivation for creating Jolly?

Gianluca Martino: After I left Arduino [the company], I was doing some consulting for old friends. One thing people kept asking me about was a simple way to combine Arduino and IoT.

Gianluca Martino

There are already add-on "shiels" available for people to add Wi-Fi capabilities to Uno boards. What's special about Jolly?

Martino: This frees up the connector that the shield would use, and it saves space. It's a more integrated solution. It will allow you to use it without consuming I/O and other pins that the shield would need, because Jolly puts all the communication between the ESP device and the processor internally [using SPI and UART interfaces]. The ATMega variant that we chose has four extra pins for this purpose.

Can the ESP processor be programmed independently?

Martino: Yes, you can download your own boot [firmware]. Because the Arduino ecosystem is for beginners and intermediate makers, if you make something that locks it, we have a restart feature from scratch. The ESP chip is for advanced users, but there is documentation, there is firmware.

The ESP has 2 megabytes of flash memory. Is that accessible from the ATMega side?

Martino: In the basic version, no. We would consider making it transparent to some users, but we are trying to keep the two subsystems separate. The Arduino Uno is generally for people who need something quick and no-frills… so we have to keep it simple, not make it complicated.

Since the integrated design had to squeeze everything into the same space as the original ATMega processor, how did you design the Jolly's radio antenna?

Martino: We had to compromise because the location is not the best. Maybe in the future, we will add a connector to use an external antenna. But we have to remember that this is not an industrial application. As always, if there is a customer who needs special customization for an application, we will evaluate the possibilities.

IoT projects aren't always easy. You have to start signing up for online services, etc. It can get complicated quickly. How do you make it easy for someone who wants to blink an LED and control it remotely?

Martino: We want to develop the equivalent of Arduino functionality to make things transparent once they are connected, either peer-to-peer or over IP. We want to hear what you want.

We are in the midst of a global semiconductor shortage. How does this affect the launch of Jolly?

Martino: We were lucky to have started this project not too long ago, so we had some parts in stock. We were prepared to get at least the first 1,000 units to market quickly…Obviously, we live in times of shortages…The additional cost was something we would initially absorb because we didn’t want to pass it on to the customer. We knew we were pitching this to people as an upgrade, and a little piece of extra hardware wouldn’t be more expensive than the base hardware.