With my newfound motivation to get rolling in Arduino programming, I am finally going to open up the plastic blister pack of my OSEPP Uno R3 Plus. I must have bought this item when it was on sale somewhere, thinking I would get into Arduino programming but ended up letting it sit on a shelf for years.

OSEPP Uno R3 Plus blister pack

Today the product web page lists it as a discontinued product whose production ended almost three years ago in June 2016. The packaging backside pointed buyers to the url www.osepp.com/boards which is not even a valid URL anymore and returns a HTTP404 error page instead.

OSEPP Uno R3 Plus specifications

If this had been a proprietary product I would have been worried if I could even use it anymore. But since it was based on Arduino, an open source product, I was not as worried. Based on its name and physical appearance I guess it was a derivative of the Arduino Uno, which is still an active part of the Arduino product line in Rev3 form.

OSEPP Uno R3 Plus PCB

The exterior dimensions of the circuit board look identical, as are the mounting holes, in order to be compatible with the Arduino shield ecosystem. Comparing it against the standard Arduino Uno I see a few modifications elevating this product above a mere clone. The power jack looks the same but the USB connector is different. Its reset button has been moved to make way for a connector labelled I2C. I see four surface mounted LEDs in the same place as the standard Arduino Uno, which will be useful as I recall the Arduino "Hello World" blinks one of them.

The only thing I'm not terribly thrilled about is the fact the processor is a surface mounted chip instead of socketed DIP of the standard Uno. A socketed chip would be easy to replace if I should damage it in some way, with this surface mounted chip I'm pretty confident I'd need to buy a new board.

I see a little bit of manufacturing residue on the circuit board, possibly solder flux that was not completely cleaned off. That and a few other cosmetic blemishes did not worry me in regard to board functionality. It looks ready to go, so let's plug it in and see what happens.