Help with my simple DIY arduino board so I can put my store bought one away for safe keeping.

Hi everyone,

I thought it would be cool to make a home made arduino compatible based on the atmega328 so i wouldn't have to worry about " frying" or messing up my store bought arduino when experimenting with something i'm not 100 percent comfortable with. I've had some problems getting one to work, and i'm not sure if it is my design or maybe just a few bad components, or my lousy soldering skills. anyhow, i'd appreciat it if someone could take a look at the attached circuit and let me know if you think it should work, or what I need to change. thanks in advance.

I used fritzing to create the drawing.

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Former Member over 12 years ago

Can we assume that:

1. LED 1 is lighting up brightly
2. All of the +5V and Gnd pins have been metered
3. The 328 is not running hot to the touch
4. Bootloader has been programmed (and verified) on the 328 (or the 328 has been transplanted from store-bought arduino)
5. Crystal is of (relatively) good quality

That'd be my first round checklist.
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ohiocomputerguy over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

yes, the led is lighting up, i neglected to meter the pins (will do that straight away), the 328 is not hot, bootloader verified, the crystals i ordered from china on ebay, is there a reliable way to test them?
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ohiocomputerguy over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

yes, the led is lighting up, i neglected to meter the pins (will do that straight away), the 328 is not hot, bootloader verified, the crystals i ordered from china on ebay, is there a reliable way to test them?
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mconners over 12 years ago in reply to ohiocomputerguy

Seeing this made me think of your post:

http://www.amazon.com/Virtuabotix-Bareduino-Compatible-Microcontroller-Regulator/dp/tech-data/B007QGG1ZY/ref=de_a_smtd

looks like they have a similar thing going on, bare number of components.

The voltage regulator is a nice touch.

Mike
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to ohiocomputerguy

Not aware of easy reliable way to test xtal without expensive scope, coupling probes, and/or frequency counter [all available through element14 - plug ;-) ].

328 has a fuse bit that can bring out the clock on a pin. Hooking that pin up to a frequency counter (store bought arduino as a frequency counter?) is possible.

However, assuming you have metered 5V and Ground at all the expected places, the 328 really should be executing instructions already. Unless it is ringing-reset or in perma-reset.

So next thing I'd check is the RESET. Your circuit has RESET floating, and then grounded through a 10k when the button is pressed.

1. Was this exact configuration working with your 328 in a breadboard?

2. Could the button have been soldered on the "wrong side" and RESET is perma-grounded? (verify with meter)

3. Try hot jumpering a 10k from RESET to +5V, restart your board and see if anything changes.
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ohiocomputerguy over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

doh, i feel a bit stupid. switch was soldered on the "wrong side". thanks for all the help. (could have swore i checked that).
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mconners over 12 years ago in reply to ohiocomputerguy

Glad you solved it. Have fun with it.

Mike
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to ohiocomputerguy

Don't feel bad. It didn't make it into my checklist out of the blue [guess who else had multiple similar experiences... ] ;-)
Happy prototyping on your custom build !
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

I think S. Li has explained it in a very good way.
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