I have built at least 3 different standalones one on a breadboard from http://oomlout.com/BBAC/BBAC-Assembly-Guide.pdf
and the last one is a PCB but I do not know how to include the circuit diagram here from a text doc.
The boards all work perfect if I use the Arduino - 328P chip as the interface, so how does the arduino FDTI circuit time the reset differnt from the breakout boards?
The 328's all come bootloaded
By external clock are you refering to the crystal and cap setup if so yes if something else then no.
Should I have the RX pulldown resister?