Introducing the New Arduino Yún Rev 2

A Second Life for the Arduino Yún

The original Arduino Yún was announced at Maker Faire Bay Area back in the middle of 2013, and released later the same year at World Maker Faire in New York. However the board became one of the first casualties of the Arduino War, which was finally brought to a close in the middle of last year, as it received little in the way of support from the two warning companies.

Which is why it’s intriguing to see the announcement from Arduino earlier today of a new version of the Arduino Yún, called the Arduino Yún Rev 2.

The new Arduino Yún Rev 2, front (left) and back (right). (📷: Arduino)

The original board was the first Linux-based Arduino board, which placed it in unique position in the Arduino lineup. It combined an ATmega32U4-based “classic” Arduino on to the same board as a 400MHz Atheros AR9331 MIPS processor running Linino — a MIPS Linux distribution based on OpenWRT.

The new Yún has a similar configuration to the original board, and uses the same two processors, making it backwards compatible with its predecessor. However, there have been several architectural changes to the layout of the board to fix issues suffered by the original.

The new Arduino Yún Rev 2. (📷: Arduino)

The most noticeable change is the position of the Ethernet and USB sockets. The USB socket is now horizontally, rather than vertically, mounted on the board, and both it and the Ethernet jack are “through board” mounted rather than surface or through hole. This means that both have a lower profile and significantly reduces the risk of accidental short circuits when using shields, which the original Yún was somewhat notorious for doing. The board also has a much improved USB hub, and a more robust power supply.

The software stack for the board has also received attention with OpenWRT updated to the latest version, and the addition of SSL support on the Arduino to Linux bridge.

Tom Igoe, one of the co-creators of the Arduino, with the “Cognitive Dress” designed by IBM and Marchesa, and powered by an Arduino Yún. The dress is part of the Henry Ford collection in Detroit. (📷: Alasdair Allan)

Announced today the new board is not expected to hit the market until the second half of April, with estimated availability on April 23rd. The board will cost $59 (€49), which is $10 less than the cost of the original Yún, and will be available to buy from the Arduino Store.