Minimal Arduino

1 Scope

This little project goes back to a phone call a couple of years ago, where my phone partner told me that he was interested in programming bare bone Atmel 328 ICs. I thought, well this is kind of interesting, because the Arduino platform is quite nice, but there are times where I wanted to have such a little logic platform alone without the need to have a standard Arduino PCB.

So I got myself a couple of Arduino ICs from Sparkfun.

It took me a long time until I had the opportunity and spare time to try them, but now I did and here are my insights!

2 Components

• SparkFun ATmega328 with Arduino Optiboot (Uno) https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10524

Note that you can also get this IC from Reichelt: https://www.reichelt.de/arduino-atmega328-mit-arduino-bootloader-ard-atmega-328-p230602.html

• SparkFun 5V FTDI Basic interface: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716
• three Tantal capacitors 100nF
• A crystal 16,0000 MHz
• two capacitors 22pF
• A breadboard and a set of bridges
• a 10K resistor and a pushbutton switch
• a 470 Ohm resistor and a red LED
• The Standard Arduino development environment

3 Useful Information

Some useful information:

• Basics for your fundamental understanding of these devices: https://www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/AVR-Tutorial:_Equipment
• Here is the datasheet of the Atmel 328P: https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/1/1/9/c/b/Atmel-42735-8-bit-AVR-Microcontroller-ATmega328-328P_Datasheet.pdf
• Here is some information on how to hook up the FTDI: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/sparkfun-usb-to-serial-uart-boards-hookup-guide

4 Setup

I followed this instruction here: https://www.kriwanek.de/index.php/de/arduino/boards/410-minimal-arduino-f%C3%BCrs-breadboard

I am taking the circuit from Kriwanek's web page:

5 Programming

Oh, well, the program was just a standard program to show that flashing worked fine.

Note that in the programmer you need to check the board Type: "Arduino Uno".

/*
  Blink
  Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.
 
  This example code is in the public domain.
 */
 
// Pin 13 has an LED connected on most Arduino boards.
// give it a name:
int led = 13;

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {                
  // initialize the digital pin as an output.
  pinMode(led, OUTPUT);     
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(led, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
  digitalWrite(led, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
}

6 Images