JBtek Arduino Leonardo Review

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product for free so that I could provide product feedback to the company and post a product review. I was not required to write a positive review and I do not rate products higher than they should have been. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's requirements.

I recently received a JBtek Arduino Leonardo for a product review. The package just came with the board itself and a USB to microUSB cable, nothing else.

For this review I am not going to focus on comparing this Leonardo board to the other Arduino options, or even other microcontrollers.  I am going to assume the decision is already made, if not just search online for comparisons to figure out what works best for you.

The board didn’t include any software / documentation, but that wasn’t an issue I just went to the website ( http://www.arduino.cc ) that is on the board itself.  From there, I was able to install the software.

Product Packaging

USB cable and board

When I connected the board to my computer using the included cable, the green power LED labeled “on” turned on and another LED labeled “L” started to blink.  I played around with some of the sample code, and did a few simple tests:

- Made the LED labeled “L” blink on/off
- Measured voltage and output the voltage to the serial port
- Emulated a keyboard so that when the voltage was over 4V, it would send the voltage (as if it were typed) to the computer.  I actually tested this on an Android device also, and it worked.

Top of board

Bottom of board

Close up of ports / LEDs

Overall, it seems the device is loading code fine and some simple tests seemed to work.  I look forward to playing around with it more and hopefully doing some neat projects.

Here are the main points I noticed about this product:

Minimal Kit: This is just a board and cable, if you are just starting to learn Arduino devices you may want to get other items (breadboard, jumper cables etc).

Documentation: This unit doesn’t come with anything but that isn’t an issue because there is a wealth of information online, and the Arduino site is a great start.

Hardware: Based on a quick visual inspection, the board seems to be good quality - nothing loose, no sloppy solder job as far as I can tell.

Bottom line: Assuming you are looking for this specific Leonardo board, the JBtek offering is a great option to consider.

Amazon Product Page: http://amzn.com/B00UUZTVOG