64 pixel RGB LED Display - Another Arduino Clone

Step 5 Finished Gadget

After having solved all problems and getting the code running, I just had to created a PCB layout and send it off to a fab house. It look so much cleaner :-)

Image (1): fully populated controller board

Image (2): front side of the bare PCB

Image (2): back side

There are connectors breaking out PORTC and PORTD of the ATmega168/328 chip and 5V/GND. These ports contain the serial RX,TX lines, the I²C lines, digital I/O lines and 7 ADC lines. This is intended for stacking shields on the backside of the board. The spacing is suitable for using perfboard (0.1in).

The bootloader can be flashed using the ICSP header (works with adafruit's USBtinyISP). As soon as that is done, just use a standard FTDI USB/TTL serial adapter or similar. I've also added an auto-reset-disable jumper. I've also cooked up a little Perl script (see my blog), that enables auto-reset with FTDI cables which usually doesn't work out of the box (RTS vs. DTR line). This works on Linux, maybe on MAC.

Printed circuit boards and a few DIY KITs are available on my blog. SMD soldering required! See the PDF files for building instructions and sources for LED matrices.