Arduino Yún, a board to enter the Internet of Things freely

arduino yun

The Internet of Things or also known as IoT has revolutionized the technological world and has also reached many of our projects (whether we want to or not). That is why many users are looking for a board that processes their programs, is inexpensive and also connects to the Internet without using a wireless key or a network card. For many, the latter is a quick fix, but it does not mean that it is a professional or effective solution.

Given this, the team of The Arduino project has developed a board that is aimed at the Internet of Things. This board is called Arduino Yún.

What is Arduino Yún?

Arduino Yún is a board from the Arduino Project. This means that its design and manufacture can be carried out by ourselves or by any company as well as being able to use its designs to create prototypes and personal plates. In the case of Arduino Yún, the latter would be a further step, since it is based on Arduino Leonardo, a more powerful board model than Arduino UNO.

Arduino Yún has the same design and the same controller as Arduino Leonardo, that is, the processor Atmel ATmega32U4. But, unlike Arduino Leonardo, Arduino Yún has an Atheros Wireless AR9331 mini-board, a slot for microsd cards and a core called Linino.

What are the differences between Arduino Yún and Arduino UNO?

arduino yun

Taking into account the above, the differences between the Arduino Yún model and the model are clear Arduino UNO. But there are some more.

If you look at the article that we recently published, an Arduino board lacks many elements that other boards like Raspberry Pi have, but Arduino Yún does not.

The core called Lininus is a core that offers enough power to have a small distribution called Openwrt-Yún. This distribution uses the Linux kernel and a few other tools that make Openwrt can be installed on any device with an atheros board or similar.

What is Openwrt-Yún?

At this point, it is convenient to make a brief stop about what Openwrt-Yún is and why it is important.

OpenWrt logo

OpenWRT It is a Gnu / Linux distribution that adapts to any router and wireless card. In this case, Openwrt-Yun is a modified distribution to be installed on Arduino Yún. The distribution resides in Linino and can be expanded thanks to the slot for microsd cards. To be able to use these functions, we only have to connect to the board remotely through ssh and use the distribution's package manager as well as the rest of the tools.

Needless to say, this distribution it will offer us some basic smart functions that an operating system has but is not the same as a Raspberry Pi board that can be used as a minicomputer or an old pc that we can use as a server or part of a cluster.

How to access the Arduino Yún configuration?

To access the Arduino Yún configuration, we have to take two steps into account:

  • Install the drivers so that it is recognized by the pc with Arduino IDE
  • Configure the remote interface for connections and the “bridge” step for personal programs to use the wireless interface.

The first step is important since at some point we will need to send programs and data to the Arduino Yún board. For this we only have to install the board drivers and then run Arduino IDE. If we have Arduino IDE on Gnu / Linux, there will be no problem with this step and we will not have to do anything; If we have Windows, the drivers for this model as well as other Arduino models will have been installed with the Arduino IDE, hence the importance of using this IDE; And if we have mac OS, we don't have to do anything if we use Arduino IDE, but the first time we connect the Arduino Yún board to our Mac, the keyboard installation wizard will appear, a wizard that we will have to close with the red button. It is a problem that appears reflected in the official website of Arduino Yún.

The other step that we are interested in knowing is the connection and administration of the Arduino Yún Wi-Fi module. First we have to give energy to the plate; this will cause the board to create a wifi network called Yún. We connect to this network and in the browser we write the address http: //arduino.local This address will open a website from which we can manage the new network created. The username and password of this panel is "arduino", a word that we can change once we enter the panel.

Arduino Yun web interface

But, if we use Arduino Yun, what we will look for is to connect to a Wi-Fi network and not create our own network. To do this, in the panel that has been opened, at the bottom there is a drop-down with the elements to connect to any Wi-Fi network, except for university networks and other similar networks that use protocols and password software that makes it impossible (still ) the connection with this type of plates.

Well, we already know how to create your own Wi-Fi network, connect to another Wi-Fi network, but how do I use this connection with other boards and / or programs?

Well for it we have to use the Bridge function within the program that we create in Arduino IDE. The function starts with Bridge.begin (), a function that will allow us to communicate with the normal function and the wireless function of the Arduino Yún board.

What can I do with Arduino Yún?

Arduino Phone Image

With the necessary programming, we can make any technological device "intelligent" thanks to the Arduino Yún board. However, the most common is to use the board so that the gadget created can connect to the Internet and to be able to manipulate it through another device such as a smartphone, a tablet or a pc.

Some users have managed to use the board as a rare network card, but we have to say that doing this is quite difficult and the price of the board is higher than any normal network card. On Instructables you can get a small fan of what can be done with Arduino Yún. We just have to write the name of the board in the repository search engine and various projects that use this model will appear.

Conclusion

Arduino Yún is an interesting and important board for many users because until his arrival, whoever wanted to connect his project to the Internet had to buy an Arduino board plus a wireless or GSM shield that allows the connection. The cost was higher than Arduino Yún and more difficult programming with more limitations. Arduino Yún corrects all this and offers the possibility of creating lighter and more powerful gadgets than up to now. But other alternatives such as Raspberry Pi Zero W may be better suited to our project. In any case, both Arduino and Raspberry Pi follow the guidelines of the Hardware Libre and that means we can choose the board and the solution without seeing our project compromised.


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  1.   xtrak said

    Hello, April 24, 2018, this plate appears withdrawn by the manufacturer, supposedly because it does not comply with any regulations.
    What pissed me off is that yun's shield does have it in the catalog.
    I leave the link: https://store.arduino.cc/arduino-yun
    I am looking for an alternative for my project, I would appreciate any suggestions.
    A greeting and thanks for the post.