Introduction
pinch is a tiny Arduino-compatible development board built around the Microchip ATSAMD11D14A, a 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller running at up to 48 MHz.
Despite its compact size, pinch includes native USB-C, an onboard RGB LED, a reset button, and 12 GPIO pins exposed through a 1.27 mm header. It can be programmed directly from the Arduino IDE over USB without an external programmer.
pinch is designed for compact embedded projects, rapid prototyping, USB devices, and applications where a traditional development board is too large.
Key Features
- ATSAMD11D14A 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller
- Up to 48 MHz clock speed
- 16 KB flash and 4 KB SRAM
- Native USB-C for programming and communication
- Onboard RGB LED and reset button
- 12 GPIO pins on a 1.27 mm header
- Digital, analog, PWM, I2C, SPI, UART, and DAC support
- Arduino IDE support through the moddo SAMD board package
- Compact 10.5 × 10.9 mm footprint
Size Comparison
pinch occupies 97% less board area than an Arduino UNO while retaining a reset button, native USB, and 15 GPIO pins, including the three pins used by the onboard RGB LED.
| pinch | Arduino Nano | Arduino Micro | Arduino UNO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Board |  |  |  |  |
| Dimensions | 10.5 × 10.9 mm 0.413 × 0.429 in | 18.0 × 45.0 mm 0.71 × 1.77 in | 18.0 × 48.0 mm 0.71 × 1.89 in | 53.4 × 68.6 mm 2.10 × 2.70 in |
| Reset button | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Native USB | ✓ | — | ✓ | — |
| LEDs | RGB | Yellow | Yellow, green | Yellow |
| GPIO pins | 12 + 3 RGB LED pins | 22 | 20 | 20 |
| Weight | 1.1 g 0.04 oz | 7.0 g 0.25 oz | 13.0 g 0.46 oz | 25.0 g 0.88 oz |
Specifications
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| Product Name | pinch |
| Processor | Arm Cortex-M0+ processor running at up to 48 MHz (SAMD11) |
| RAM | 4 KB SRAM |
| Flash | 16 KB Flash (12 KB for sketches, 4 KB bootloader) |
| Interface | GPIO Pin ×15 (D0–D14) Header GPIO ×12 (D0–D11) Analog Pin ×5 (A0–A4) PWM Pin ×11 DAC ×1 I2C ×1 UART ×2 (USB & D5/D6) SPI ×1 |
| USB | USB-C, native full-speed (CDC serial + HID) |
| Onboard | RGB LED (D12–D14) Reset button 3.3 V LDO |
| Header | 16-pin, 1.27 mm pitch |
| Power | 5 V (USB-C) @ 500 mA max output 3.3 V (LDO) @ 300 mA max output |
| Debug | SWD on D5 (SWCLK) / D6 (SWDIO) |
| Dimensions | 10.5 mm × 10.9 mm (±0.2 mm) 0.413 in × 0.429 in (±0.008 in) |
Next Steps
Follow the Quick Start guide to install pinch support in the Arduino IDE and upload your first sketch.