The 6 Best MCU Boards for All Levels

Microcontrollers basically follow similar designs. They have limited onboard memory, operate at low power, and feature a set of General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pins that are typically programmable via a USB cable.

There are so many boards to choose from that it can be hard to choose the perfect one for you. Beginners have a completely different experience with hardware than people who could program or work with electronics before.

No matter what level you’re at, one of these microcontrollers should work well for you.

1. Best microcontroller for beginners
Arduino Uno R3

If you have an interest in microcontrollers, you have almost certainly heard of the Arduino. They popularized open source hobby hardware with their set of development boards and an independent development environment (IDE) to code them.

The Arduino Uno R3 is the standard Arduino found in most starter kits and is the easiest to use. If budget is an issue, note that Arduino is open source hardware. Therefore, copies of the design are completely legal. If you’re looking for Arduino clones, you’ll find plenty at a much lower price than the official Arduino boards.

2. The best microcontroller for kids
Makeblock mCore Robot Controller

Wait, that doesn’t look like a microcontroller board!

Well, the mBot Robot Kit has a microcontroller as its brain. Its design makes it ideal for teaching kids about robotics without having to deal with complicated code. The visual code of the block, collected in the Blocky app, is transmitted to the board via Bluetooth to influence the behavior of the robot.

You can buy the microcontroller separately from the robot kit, but why not? Robots are the best!

This kit covers everything from building robots to the basics of programming. For introducing microcontrollers to a young audience, there is nothing better!

3. The best microcontroller for programmers
STM32 F3 Discovery

The STM32 F3 Discovery board is an ARM Cortex-M4 based MCU for experimenting with all aspects of hardware programming. The board is equipped with a built-in motion detector, a three-axis gyroscope, a linear acceleration sensor and a magnetic field sensor.

There are also eight LEDs in a circular arrangement. Please note that this board requires a separate FTDI adapter to communicate with computers via USB. If you’re not sure what they are, one of these was used in our build of our own Arduino guide to communicate with the ATMega328P chip.

Learning to program the F3 Discovery is a deeper process than many other microcontrollers. Luckily, there are libraries that make this process more accessible, and many tutorials start with the basics. Along with its use of the C++ programming language, the board is the subject of The Book of Discoveries; Getting Started Guide to Implementing the Rust Programming Language.

4. Best microcontroller for wearable
Adafruit Gemma M0

With microcontrollers combining advanced control over LEDs and other components with small form factors and low power requirements, it’s no wonder they show up in costume design and cosplay. Adafruit’s Gemma M0 board is a coin-sized microcontroller ideal for connecting LEDs or other components with a conductive thread. Alternatively, you can use DotStar’s built-in RGB LED.

The ATSAMD21E18 chip (try to say hurry up) is a step up from the usual onboard controllers for microcontrollers of this type. While you can use a standard C++ type Arduino, the board comes pre-installed with CircuitPython for Python programming and its own USB connection, which is not usually found on other boards of this type.