Canada-based Moddo has designed the Pinch board, which it claims is the world’s smallest 32-bit Arduino-compatible board so far, measuring just 10.9 x 10.5 mm.
The board is powered by a Microchip SAMD11 Cortex-M0+ microcontroller with 4 KB SRAM and 16KB flash, features an RGB LED, reset/bootloader button, 3.3 V LDO, a USB-C port, and a total of 12 GPIOs.
Moddo Pinch specifications:
- Microcontroller – Microchip SAM D11 (ATSAMD11D14A)
- MCU core – Arm Cortex-M0+ processor running at up to 48 MHz
- RAM – 4 KB SRAM
- Storage – 16 KB Flash (12 KB for sketches, 4 KB bootloader)
- USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power, programming (CDC serial), and HID
- Expansion – 16-pin header (1.27mm pitch)
- 12x GPIO (D0–D11)
- 5x analog input (A0–A4)
- 11x PWM
- 1x DAC
- 1x I2C, 1x SPI, 2x UART(multiplexed with USB & D5/D6)
- Debug – SWD on D5 (SWCLK) and D6 (SWDIO)
- Misc
- RGB LED (connected to D12–D14)
- Reset button
- Power
- 5V via USB-C @ 500 mA max output
- 3.3V LDO @ 300 mA max output
- Dimensions – 10.9 x 10.5 mm
- Weight – TBD
The board is compatible with the Arduino IDE. Simply add the following URL to the “Additional Boards Manager URLs” list in the preference window.
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https://raw.githubusercontent.com/moddoio/moddoBoards-SAMD/main/package_moddo_index.json |
After that, install the moddo SAMD Boards package, and select the pinch board. There’s some issue with the package, and it wouldn’t install when I tried, but that should be an easy fix… [update: it’s fixed!]
The company provides more technical details and Arduino board options on GitHub. Moddo says the board is small enough for tight builds and suitable for HID devices like keyboards and mice over native USB.
While a small size is great for deployment, it’s not so nice during development, especially when having to use a 1.27mm pitch GPIO header. So the company also provides a kit that adds a breakout board with 2.54mm pitch through holes and three headers.
Every so often, we write about the world’s smallest Arduino-compatible board, and this obviously changes over the years. The previous record holder was the ATTO board, measuring just 11.5mm x 10.3 mm, and it’s based on an 8-bit Microchip ATmega32U4 AVR microcontroller rather than a more powerful 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU found in the pinch. There’s actually a smaller one with the Raspberry Pi RP2040-based RPDot board that’s just 10x10mm, but it lacks a USB-C port, and it’s never been commercialized, so does that even count?
Justin Kim, Design & Hardware Lead at moddo inc, told CNX Software they were currently in the final testing and mass production stage. Having said that, pre-orders are now open for the pinch PCB kit, going for $15.90 and scheduled to start shipping sometime in September 2026.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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