If you’re like me, after I got my Arduino and performed a final programming on my first chip, I wanted to pull it off my Arduino Duemilanove and put it on my own circuit. This would also free up my Arduino for future projects.
The problem was that I’m such an electronics newbie that I didn’t know where to start. After reading through many web pages and forums, I was able to put together this Instruct able.
I wanted to have the information I learned all in one place, and easy to follow.
Comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated as I’m still trying to learn all this stuff.
Edit:
Fellow Instruct able member, Janw mentioned to me that it’s always a good idea to add a capacitor or 2 near your power. He mentioned using a couple of 100nF capacitors should work. I’m very grateful he pointed this out to me, because my first production circuit that I’m building upon this circuit, was having a little bit of strange behavior. So I hooked up one 10uF capacitor near my power, and it started behaving correctly! I don’t know why it didn’t affect my ‘blinking LED’ test, but I do know that I’m grateful for Janw for pointing this out to me. Thanks Janw.
Edit2:
Building upon the previous edit, I wanted to mention that Instruct able member, kz1o brought out some more information regarding the capacitors. Please see his comment below, dated February 14th, 2010 @ 10:52 am.
I bought my parts from Digikey and Sparkfun Electronics – they’re 2 of my favorite places to buy components. Anyway, here’s the list:
#1 – (Qty: 1) – ATMega328 chip with Arduino bootloader pre-installed ($5.50)
#2 – (Qty: 1) – 5VDC Switching power supply ($5.95)
(Note: If you don’t use a switching power supply, you must add in a voltage regulator and a couple of capacitors…see below)
#3 – (Qty: 2) – 22 pF ceramic disc capacitors ($.24 / ea)
#4 – (Qty: 1) – 16MHz Crystal ($1.50)
#5 – (Qty: 1) – Power jack ($.38) (Optional)
#6 – (Qty: 1) – Breadboard (hopefully you have one laying around, but if not, here’s one. ($8.73)
#7 – Small pieces of 22 awg solid wire. If you don’t have any, you can probably pick some up at your favorite electronics store.