Note: this page refers to a product that is retired.

Standalone Assembly

Instructions for replicating the circuit of an Arduino board on a breadboard.

Here's a pictorial view of a standalone Arduino system on a breadboard. This version basically duplicates the Arduino serial model, with a slight change. You can see from the schematic that a few components have been removed, and a new one has been added. The 7404N hex inverter replaces the RX and TX transistor assemblies on the serial board. It's just a convenient way to invert the serial signal from a the programming computer to the ATMega8.

You'll need a chart to know the Arduino pin numbers of the ATmega8 pins. Here's one.

ATMega8 schematic.
ATMega8 schematic.

note: programming header not included in schematic

NOTE: there are 3 mistakes in the schematic: pin 1 and 2 of the 7404 (IC1) must be swapped / S1 (the reset switch) is connected between GND and pin 1 of IC2 (the atmega8) / pin 5 of X1 (serial connector) is connected to ground.

Here's a part list for this board:

PartValueDescriptionDigikey Part No.Unit Cost $USD
C110uF10UF 50V MINI ALUM ELECT (KA)P828-ND0.16
C21uF1.0UF 50V MINI ALUM ELECT (KA)P824-ND0.14
C322pFCAP 22PF 200V 5% CER RADIAL399-1926-ND0.11
C422pFCAP 22PF 200V 5% CER RADIAL399-1926-ND0.11
ICMEGA168-PIC AVR MCU 16K 20MHZ 28DIPATMEGA168-20PU-ND4.11
IC7805IC REG 1A POS 0-125DEG C TO-220LM7805CT-ND0.45
LED1LED 3MM GREEN CLEAR160-1144-ND0.19
Q116MHzCRYSTAL 16.000 MHZ HC49/US300-8499-ND0.63
R110KRES 10K OHM 1/4W 5% CARBON FILM10KQBK-ND0.06
R2220RES 220 OHM 1/4W 5% CARBON FILM220QBK-ND0.06
S1SWITCH TACT 6MM MOM 100GFSW400-ND0.28
X1CONN D-SUB RECPT 9POS AU FLASHA32510-ND3.06

A few extra parts for bootloader programming:

Qty.Desc.Digikey Part No.Unit Cost $USD
1PROGRAMMER AVR IN SYSTEMATAVRISP2-ND34.00
1CONN HEADER RT/A 10POS .100 TINA1920-ND0.83
1CONN HEADR BRKWAY .100 20POS STRA26509-20-ND1.00

You will need an Atmel programmer to put the bootloader on your microcontroller, initially. In the board pictured below, space is left above the microcontroller to attach the programming cable.

standalone header space

I made a programming header connector to connect to an AVRISP programmer by soldering right-angle header pins to straight header pins. The cable attaches facing to the right of the board.

programmer header

programmer cable

To program the bootloader, you'll need the bootloader files. In Arduino-0001, bootloading is not built into the interface, so you'll need to do a little extra work.

Bootloader

Once the chip is bootloaded, you're ready to connect it to the Arduino software. To simplify the board, I removed the programming header and connecting wires and added a reset button in the space above the microcontroller. Here's the resulting board. This is accurate to the schematic, except for the 220-ohm resistor on the LED.

standalone w serial

The serial connector's connection to ground is hidden under the connector itself in the photo above, so here's the same photo without the connector, to reveal the wires:

standalone no serial

The serial connector is soldered to some straight headers so it can fit into the board like so:

ser connector back

Connect a serial cable to your computer, a 9-15V DC power supply to the board, and you're ready to program.

Suggest changes

The content on docs.arduino.cc is facilitated through a public GitHub repository. If you see anything wrong, you can edit this page here.

License

The Arduino documentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 license.

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