TechDuino locally produces low-cost Ardunio clone

By Rashika Fazali

Sinhalese language IT podcast site TechKatha (tech talks) has produced an open source Arduino clone, titled TechDuino an ideal platform for IT students interested in building electronics that can manipulate any environment.

This programmable microcontroller measuring 5cms x 6cms and manufactured locally is available at a reasonable cost of Rs. 1,550 in comparison to the original Arduino price tag of Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 6,000. So far, 350 TechDuino units have been sold with another order for 200 more units in the pipeline.  

In an interview with TechKatha Founder Kalinga Athulathmudali, he emphasised that it was important to reduce costs drastically to suit the Sri Lankan market and that by reducing the unit cost they will be able to expand the company’s reach to a lot more students, especially in rural areas interested who want to learn IT hardware configuration.

In order to cut down costs; TechDuino currently on version 3.0, uses through-hole components instead of Arduino’s surface mounted component (SMD) which are also difficult to assemble in Sri Lanka due to the lack of parts.

Athulathmudali stated: “The original Arduino and the TechDuino is 100% inter-compatible. So whatever you use with an Arduino, you can use it with a TechDuino.” However, the company has modified certain parts such as the USB interface in order to bring cost down even further.

The USB interface is only needed during programming, so the TechKatha team divided the USB and the heart of the microcontroller to make the USB controller an individual component. On the other hand, the original Arduino comes with a USB interface embedded contributing to its higher cost.

An interesting aspect of the TechDuino is that it can be bought assembled or as a do-it-yourself kit. The purpose of this kit is to enable the user to learn the assembly process which in itself becomes a learning process.  Speaking to Athulathmudali on why they decided to produce an Arduino clone, he explained: “A lot of people know how to write programs, but they have very little knowledge when it comes to hardware in terms of how it works. That’s where the major job opportunities are. So what we wanted to do was get people to use TechDuino to design hardware.”

The original Arduino was created more or less for people with little programming knowledge and this is an advantage in using the Arduino clone in comparison to other open source products which are complex in terms of programming language. As an example, he recalled that one user of 78 years of age with no computing knowledge bought this unit and within two days was able to write a “Knight Rider” flashing light code.

He further added that with TechDunio, users can make a lot of robotic items, network communication devices, radio frequency readers, controlling devices and lighting systems as well.  The TechDuino uses C++ and Arduino documentation which is well-documented. However, TechDuino gives out instructions in Sinhala since they hope to target the rural market where the availability of such knowledge is very limited. Nevertheless, a number of companies have bought this unit in order to design their own products around TechDuino.

Speaking on how long it takes to produce TechDunio, Athulathmudali stated that it takes around 20 minutes to create a single TechDunio unit.

TechDuino started as a hobby of Athulathmudali’s three months back after he saw the potential for hardware development in the market through his IT website, TechKatha. He recalled that as a kid, he was very curious regarding the functionalities of a device and when he managed to ask certain technicians, they never explained the procedure and were reluctant to give away the knowledge.

With this in mind, he wanted to take the initiative to provide this knowledge of electronics in the country to everyone adding: “If you really want to learn, this is the place to start.”