My First DIY Arduino Board

There are a lot of tutorials on the Web when it comes to creating your own Arduino board based from the Atmel ATMEGA328P-PU Integrated Chip. But I decided to create my own “step-by-step” process on how I came up with it – successfully. This is my own way of documenting my work. I will also update this article to include some schematic diagrams.

Here are the list of required components to building your DIY Arduino board which I bought from Sun Kist Enterprises (https://web.facebook.com/SunKistEnterprise/) thru Mr. Mark Rudolph C. Domasin (https://www.facebook.com/Rudolphchase). (I ordered in the morning, and I received the ordered components morning  the day afetr thru LBC. Payment was done online as well. Trust me, Sun Kist Enterprises is LEGIT.)

One (1) Atmel ATMEGA328 Dip Type IC for UNO (with Arduino Bootloader)
One (1) FT232RL FTDI USB to TTL Serial Adapter Module for Arduino Mini Port 3.3V 5V
One (1) USB Cord for FTDI USB to Serial Module
One (1) 16.000 MHz Crystal Oscillator
Two (2) 22pF Capacitors
One (1) 100nF Capacitor
One (1) LED light (for testing the default blinking program in the chip)
One (1) 220 Ohms Resistor 1/4 Watt
At least Eight (8) pairs of male-to-male jumper wires
One (1) Breadboard (I used the 400 point-board)

Be sure you have all the components before starting to build your board. First of all, you need to know the pin mapping of the Atmel ATMEGA328 Chip as this will be very useful when interfacing the components to the chip. Atmega168 and Atmega328 mapping are the same. The pin mapping can be found at Arduino’s official site at https://www.arduino.cc/en/Hacking/PinMapping168.

Atmega168 (and also Atmega328) Pin Mapping

Without further ado, lets start kickin!

STEP 1. Attach the Atmega328 Chip to the breadboard. I attached pin 1 (the one with a small etched circle at the top corner) to row 1 column e. Please refer to the image below:

STEP 2. Attach the 16.000 MHz Crystal Oscillator. Going back to the pin mapping, you will see that pins 9 and 10 is the TOSC1 and TOSCI2 respectively. The two legs of the crystal will be attached here. Now attach the two legs of the crystal oscillator to pins 9 and 10. Refer to the image below:

STEP 3. Attach the two 22 pF Capacitors to pins 8 and 9, and 8 and 10 respectively. Refer to the image below:

STEP 4. Connect the VCC (Pin 7 in the Pin Mapping) to positive rail (usually the red side of the rail). I am using the red wires for positive rail connection. Refer to the image below:

STEP 5. Connect the GND (Ground, Pin 8 in the Pin Mapping) to the negative rail (usually the blue side of the rail). I am using the green wires for the ground for the negative rail connection. Refer to the image below:

STEP 6. In order for us to connect the LED light, we need to attach a resistor first to pin 19 (digital pin 13). Refer to the image below:

STEP 7. Connect the LED light. The longer leg should go with one of the legs of the resistors as shown in the image. Refer to the image below:

STEP 8. Connect the shorter leg to the negative rail (blue line), the ground. Refer to the image below:

STEP 9. Attach the FTDI USB to Serial Module to the breadboard as shown in the image. By the way, we will power up the board using this module. Refer to the image below:

STEP 10. If you look at this module on its “front side” (where you see embedded components), you will find that there are 6 pins in this order: DTR, RX, TX, VCC, CTS and GND. Of these pins, only the CTS is not used. We will only be attaching 5 pins to the chip. Remember to review the pin mapping of Atmega168Atmega328 chip above. Connect the FTDI pins to the corresponding pins in the chip.

1. FTDI USB to Serial Module DTR pin should be connected to Atmega328 Pin 1 (RESET) via 100nF Capacitor. Refer to the white wire from the FTDI USB to Serial Module.
2. FTDI USB to Serial Module RX pin should be connected to Atmega328 Pin 3 (TXD). Refer to the yellow wire from the FTDI USB to Serial Module.
   
3. FTDI USB to Serial Module TX pin should be connected to Atmega328 Pin 2 (RXD). Refer to the blue wire from the FTDI USB to Serial Module.
4. FTDI USB to Serial Module VCC pin should be connected to the positive rail of the breadboard (red line). The chip is to be powered from the rails (the one with blue and red lines at the sides of the breadboard). Refer to the red wire from the FTDI USB to Serial Module.
5. FTDI USB to Serial Module GND pin should be connected to the negative rail of the breadboard (blue line). As pointed out a while ago, we ignore the CTS pin from the FTDI USB to Serial Module. Refer to the green wire from the FTDI USB to Serial Module.

The connected wires as as shown in the image below:

The image below is a close up photo of the FTDI USB to Serial module with the colo-coded wires attached to it via the breadboard:

STEP 11. At this point, you are now ready with your DIY breadboard with Atmega328 chip. From you FTDI USB to Serial module, attached the USB connector. The other end of the USB connector is to be connected to your computer (or even a powerbank).

After powering up your board,  and that if your Atmega328 Chip is loaded with the Arduino bootloader, you should be able to see the LED light blinking for an interval of 1 second (1000 ms).

The completed board is shown below:

Hope this helps, guys. I will be updating this article every now and then to correct and make this more accurate if need be. Comments are welcome as well. I am a novice, and I want to learn more.

Component sources:
Sun Kist Enterprises (https://web.facebook.com/SunKistEnterprise/) thru
Mr. Mark Rudolph C. Domasin (https://www.facebook.com/Rudolphchase)