There's nothing micro about this super-sized Arduino Uno

It's 7x the size of the regular board

Arduino boards power everything from robots to RGB lights, but they're a little on the small side. YouTuber UncleStem has his own solution: build a gigantic, yet fully functional one.

In a video published last month on his fledgling YouTube channel, UncleStem built what he described as a seven-times-bigger-than-the-original Arduino Uno - though it seems larger than 7x - out of 3D printed parts, three layers of plywood to mimic the PCB and hide his wiring work, and, instead of an Arduino Uno, an Arduino Nano secreted inside to do the actual computing work. 

"I wanted to hide the Arduino inside the board layers, and the Nano's profile is much slimmer than UNO's," UncleStem, who asked us to refer to him by his channel name, told us in an email.

As for the motivation behind the project, UncleStem explains it not only as a fun hobbyist challenge (who wouldn’t want to have a fully functional giant Arduino to play with?), but also as a teaching tool, rather than a way to address one’s failing eyesight from too much squinting at microcontrollers.

"If you've ever tried teaching Arduino to a class, you know the struggle. Everyone's hunched over these tiny boards, trying to see where the pins are," the video voiceover explains. "With this? No problem. Hold it up, point to the pins, and boom - everyone gets it." 

Making it fully functional just adds to the cool factor, and when we say that the giant Arduino is fully functional, we really mean that. Sure, most of the exterior parts, like the ATmega chip, resistors, capacitors, and power adapter, are all just 3D printed for appearance, but if it's at all interactive or blinky, then it works. That means functional LEDs, a working reset button, and a full set of giant-yet-operational GPIO pins. 

For the LEDs, that means a 3D printed clear enclosure for regular-scale LEDs, and, for the reset switch, that means a large enclosure for a smaller button. GPIO pins are a whole other matter. 

To make those, UncleStem got hold of some large spring contacts, wired each of the 32 pins up and connected them to the Arduino Nano housed inside the three-layer wood PCB, and tested them out with a multimeter to be sure they actually worked. 

UncleStem tested his fully-assembled giga Arduino using, obviously, some custom-made giant LEDs and resistors that fit onto the giant GPIO pins without needing to be shimmed in place and some code written on a laptop and fed to the Arduino Nano. Per the video, it all worked like a charm. 

The YouTuber told us that it took him about a month of work, mostly in the evenings - and god knows how much 3D printer filament was fed through his Bambulab P1S - to build it, but he's not done yet. 

When asked whether small components would work with the board, UncleStem told us that standard-sized components would work - but why would you do that?

"Other components like buttons, sensors, LCD displays etc. work just fine with the big board," he told us, "but doesn't make much sense due to scale mismatch." 

Along with the functional giant resistors and LEDs, UncleStem said he has plans to work on other giant components as well. 

"Maybe building giant sensors, motors, buttons, LCD displays - who knows? The possibilities are pretty endless," he noted in the video. 

For those who want to build their own giant Arduino, be it as an educational aid or just a fun toy to have around the shop, UncleStem has published all his 3D printed component plans on Google Drive. The rest of the bits, and the know-how to get them working, are up to you. ®