14 Oct 2013 Standalone Arduino
 |  Category: Electronics  | Tags:

Now that the circuit for my Temperature and Humidity Control is working – its time to create a standalone micro-controller circuit so that I can free up my Induino.

References:

http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoToBreadboard

http://arduino.cc/en/Hacking/PinMapping168

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-RRRRRRRRRRBA-or-What-They-Dont-Teach-You-in-/step5/Some-Caveats/

Shopping List:

  1. Atmega 328P-PU (without bootloader)
  2. 16 MHz Crystal
  3. 2 x 22 pf capacitors
  4. LM 7805
  5. 1 uF + 10uF Electrolytic capacitors
  6. 10k Resistor
  7. General purpose PCB

All-in ~250 bucks. Had a 9V 1A power supply at home – so that was free. Needed a 9V for the relays that I had – otherwise you can use a 5V USB adapter that comes with most mobiles and gadgets. I have 8-10 lying at home 🙂

Wiring the Components:

Wire up the components as per the diagram below:

Arduino Standalone_bb

Burning the Bootloader:

  1. Connect your arduino to your computer using the USB cable.
  2. Select your board type and port from the Tools Menu
  3. Open the Arduino ISP sketch from examples
  4. Upload to your Arduino (clone)
  5. For the Induino – you can modify the LED numbers as follows: Lines 49-51 in the code. LED_HB 13; LED_ERR 12; LED_PMODE 11; Edit: Just realised – pins 11, 12, 13 are used for actual programming and should not have LEDs attached to them.
  6. This would allow you to use the in-built LEDs to show the bootloading process (purely optional)
  7. Select Tools->Board->Arduino Uno (the sources say use either Nano or Duemilanove – but Uno works just fine; I selected Uno so that I don’t have to keep changing the board every time I program my standalone kit)
  8. Select Tools->Programmer->Arduino as ISP
  9. Select Tools->Burn Bootloader
  10. Congrats – you have a working standalone arduino (albeit with some limitations)

You can disconnect the cables from your Arduino to the standalone board

 Uploading Sketches

Since our clone doesn’t have a USB-TTL interface, we have to use our arduino to program it. (this is one of the limitations :-))

  1. Remove the micro-controller from your Arduino (I’m trying to skip this step – so if anyone knows a better way – I’m all ears)
  2. Connect Rx pin to Pin 2 on the micro-controller
  3. Connect Tx pin to Pin 3 on the micro-controller
  4. Connect RST pin to Pin 1 on the micro-controller
  5. Connect power to the board (either through arduino or separate)
  6. Connect your arduino to the computer
  7. Upload sketch as usual

 

 

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7 Responses

  1. 1
    dean 

    Nice now I can build my own also!
    thanks for the tips

  2. 2
    dean 

    I just read the whole thing you can use a ftdi adapter to program your breadboard arduino, I bought a kit called mintduino that has a wiring diagram also.

  3. 3
    Ross Potts 

    Why the 7905? Isnt that for negative power? Im just used to running with a 7805 regulator

    I like your reference to the LEDs; I had been wondering how I could do that and never considered looking at the ISP sketch. :-/

  4. 4
    Dushyant 

    Ross – you’re right – it should be 7805. Thanks for pointing out

  5. 5
    Ross Potts 

    Dang! I was hoping to find some nugget of information, not correct you. Well, there’s always the LED info…

    😉

  6. 6
    Joe W 

    For the 7805’s caps, shouldn’t the larger 10uF cap be on the input side and the 1uF be on the output side? My understanding is this arrangement improves transient response to changes in voltage due to changes in load, and helps avoid ripples if the filtering is far away from the regulator.

  7. 7
    Dushyant 

    Hi Joe – you may be right there.

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