The RRRRRRRRRRBBA, a $3 Arduino

Hey, we all LOVE the Arduino, and for my projects I make extra sure that I used the Arduino platform, so that everyone in the artist and hacker community could springboard off it for their own projects, and so that I can springboard off them. Its so universal and easy to learn!   But,  there are a few things THEY don't want you to know about the Arduino:

Starting with the SHOCKING REVELATION THAT....

Step 1: For a microcontroller, the Arduino is NOT CHEAP!

1. the Arduino is NOT a cheap microcontroller!

When Arduino-lovers like me say "Wow, the Arduino is such a cheap microcontroller!" this is not strictly true -- it is very cheap for what it is, but type "microcontroller" into Mouser's search box and you will find microcontrollers that cost 30 cents, not 30 dollars.

thats because....

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Comments

[jackzylkin]

Good Suggestion! I added a schematic on step 7.

[ptorea-villegas]

"This is not a big deal unless your application needs very accurate timing or needs to perform tasks very quickly -- in which case you can add a crystal oscillator and two capacitors to make it run at the proper 16MHz speed."

In regards of this quote from the tutorial, can the ATmega chip be clocked by a faster crystal, say, 40MHz, or is 16MHz the limit? Thanks!

[VirtualBoxer]

My dad told me that overclocking can mean overheating. So you can, but you'll need the proper cooling.

[VirtualBoxer]

Also, the limit is actually 20MHz for Mega168 and Mega328. (Arduino boards that take a microcontroller with the Mega8 footprint run at 16MHz because that is the limit on Mega8.)

[Ghyorn]

1 atmega8-16pu = 1$
It's the same thing than an arduino but it only has 8kB of flash, bust trust me, it's enought for most of you projects. I have a bunch of them and put them everywhere.

[ponynicker53]

Personally I find it much easier to just make a chip w/ a 16MHz clock and be able to put any old boot-loader on it. I like using optiboot, a sketch that allows you to use your arduino (I use an uno) to bootload a chip. Then you can just stick that chip in the arduino to program.

The cost isn't that much greater:
ATMEGA328P $2.24 
Crystal 16MHz: $0.46 
(2 )Ceramic Disc Capacitors 22pF: $0.22
Optiloader: free sketch
Total: $2.92 for a 16MHz microprocessor running standard arduino bootloaders. Can be bootloaded and programmed w/ a $30 UNO.

Now I just want to find a cheap battery solution. I wish they sold 5V a dime a dozen like AA. If anyone knows of anything let me know. I'd prefer to just have to hook it up w/o any other wiring.

[ponynicker53]

Scratch that, 8 cent capacitors

[ponynicker53]

Would three 1.5V batteries for a total of 4.5 do the trick?

[misellers]

OR you could use Picaxe chips which start at £2 $3-$4 and all the work is done for you. Picaxe were even selling of their 28X2 module for £6ish.

http://www.techsupplies.co.uk/epages/Store.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store.TechSupplies/Products/AXE200

[justbennett]

Yay for Picaxe. I really feel it is under appreciated. It can do many of the things I see people using Arduinos for at a tenth of the price. The programming is easier to learn, and they come in lots of sizes. I encourage everyone to do at least one Picaxe project just to understand the difference.

[VirtualBoxer]

I have designed a Picaxe-based Arduino clone in Fritzing. It is named the Emperor board.

[VirtualBoxer]

The PIC10F200 does cost less than $1, but it still costs over $1000 to buy a full reel of them from Mouser.

[jackzylkin]

That is true, but buying a single one costs 50 cents. Fun fact: to perform the same function, It is actually cheaper to buy a pic10f200 than to buy a dual 555 timer!

[VirtualBoxer]

Dual 555? It is more often called a 556.

[ZachyKras]

i'm pretty new to electronics, but i've been thinking about getting an arduino a lot lately. I've done some research and this is the answer to a lot of my questions. thank you so much! do you think you might be able to add a little schematic about where to include the crystal and capacitors when you move the chip to its project? thanks for making a great instructable for beginners like me!

[RayBurne]

As a longtime microcontroller user, it would recommend that anyone wanting an Arduino buy an Arduino. Then you can learn by using all the tutorials that actually match the hardware that you have purchased. The single chip will just frustrate you if you are not experienced.

- Ray

[bogdanfirst]

You really reallly really shouldn't omit the 100n capacitor. At least one just under the micro.

Other than that. let-s not forget arduino is the one that started the fashion of low cost dev boards.

(from someone who never used one, just AVR micros).

[Krayzi99]

*gasps* *clutches chest* *falls on floor* OMG THANK YOU! I AM SICK AND TIRED OF BUYING A NEW ARDUINO EACH TIME!!!

[GASSYPOOTS]

make your own reset!

[Computothought]

PC interface schematic available?

[PaNiCPeRCePTioN]

N'est pas difficile! C'est très facile! Haha. No...spellings a pain sometimes ;)

[THEORANGESNOWFROG]

Thanks for the nice instructable

I was wondering why the second GND (pin 8) was'nt connected... I'm working on a board with a SMD atmega328 with 2 GND and 2 VCC and I really don't know what to do... Please help!

[dog digger]

Chip where I live cost $24!!!!!

[kiwijor]

Hi, I suggest the DorkBoard as an alternative, easy to assemble, small footprint, super easy to program, just Google for it "arduino Dork Board".

[dustinandrews]

Thanks for this great, thought provoking article. This article got me to wondering what a really small and basic surface mount Arduino Compatible would be. So, I designed one. http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-1x1-22-IO-pin-Ardunio-Compatible/

[XCVG]

The part about needing the AVRISP to program the chip initially is not strictly true. The ArduinoISP sketch can be used to burn the bootloader using your Arduino! Of course, you need something else to put the target microcontroller in, which is why breadboards were invented. Alternatively, this can be used to solve the infamous programmer chicken-and-egg problem. I built a USBTinyISP clone using this method.

[mad_b]

Congratulations for the good work! I suspected about that, but for an easy start I bought an Arduino 2009 to play with. Next steps will be easier (cheaper), even with 8MHz :-) (My first computer was a 4.77 MHz PC...) hehehehe. Thanks, man

[joshnosh]

i use an uno for playing around and testing. then i use it to program the chip and put it in my project. all you have to do is use ic sockets so you can reprogram it. you should use sockets anyway.

[useraaaaa]

PLZ create simple instructable
"how to make blinking LED"
without arduino
for $3

[killersquirel11]

Try this (originally posted here)
Under one dollar if you know where to look.

[esstein]

... and one video with this RRRRRRRRRRBBA working would be very helpful! Great article, thanks.

[ipfone]

Whit a 16 k ressonator you don´t need the capacitors and you can run at normal speed.. so all your scripts will run with no problems. Don´t forget that all arduino ide uses 16 mhz and not 8 mhz....

[bmlbytes]

The ATMega chip will run on a 8MHz crystal though, it will just process information slower.

[cmiklos]

Agree.. but the problem is the arduino IDE .. not the fact that it does run or does not.

[A.O.D]

This might be a silly question, but one thing I wasn't quite clear on was whether or not I need to connect the crystal to the ground.

[bmlbytes]

No the crystal itself does not get connected to the ground. The crystal is connected to the pins on the ATMEGA chip, and also to the capacitors. The capacitors are connected to ground, but the crystal itself is not.

[gtoal]

A quick followup on this... I ordered 10 from avnet earlier this week and they were delivered today. They have hundreds in stock and no limit per person. Total cost including shipping and tax came to $54 for 10. At that price you can embed the devkit boards in your projects rather than have to make your own PCBs.

By the way Avnet also seemed to offer a coupon (free shipping for TI parts prders over $20) but it's broken. But $8 shipping regardless of whether it's one package or ten is pretty fair.

[marcosf63]

Very good article. Congratulations!

[maclover00]

Please do yourself a favor and get chrome, firefox, opera, anything other than ie7.
There more compatible with HTML5 and other fun stuff(like processingjs)

[kyle brinkerhoff]

DOI! you need a 16 mhz oscillator if you want to preform any i/o functions using the default librarys because ALL OF YOUR I/O WONT WORK! because if you use the internal oscillator you have to be aware of it in your code, also not to mention that the internal oscillator in the atmega chips are limited to strictly internal use of the chip SO! if you attempt to do communication between digital devices you wont be able to use the oscillator to sync your communications between components!