Probably not. That should be fine. Are your fuses set to use it?

Also, another one of those "Is it plugged in" questions:

Did you program a bootloader in the chips already?

This might be a silly question, but I don't see anything in your posts addressing it, but what are you using for a clock on the 1284P?

To be fair, The Woz was never actually a classically trained engineer (he dropped out of college) and both Kilby and Hewlett/Packard had their breakthroughs while they were still VERY green, so really not the best examples.

ok, digging further into Nick's code....

He is actually implementing the clock out feature on pin 9 (I missed his timer setup before.)

So, we actually have all the pieces that we need. It also looks like you have pin 9 going to your breadboard and it looks like it is going to the X1 pin, correct?

If so, run Nick's sketch again, but this time select Lilypad if you did not before. That should program the fuses correctly for your board and also upload the proper bootloader.

I am looking through Nick's sketch right now and noticed that he began to implement the clock out feature, but it is not complete. And I also noticed that with the Lilypad selected, it sets the fuses for the internal 8MHz clock.

Which one did you select? L is for Lilypad and U is for Uno. Did you select the Lilypad when you used Nick's sketch?

ok, Then. First some theory while I familiarize myself with using the Arduino as an ISP (I have owned several programmers since many years ago, so I have never tried this part.):

When starting with a bare chip, it is programmed in the factory with the internal clock set for 1MHz. This is to give it a safe clock for initial setting of fuses and programming. So, the first thing that we have to do is to program the fuses. We are going to have to do things a bit oddly now because when you used Nick's sketch, it set the fuses to using an external 16Mhz crystal (actually anything between 8 and 16Mhz, really.) So now you will not be able to access your chip at all without an external clock. As it is, your chip is only going to work in the Uno socket.

So our first hurdle is going to be to figure out how to reprogram the fuses in your bare chip. That is going to be a bit difficult because you need a fully working Uno to be your programmer, but at the same time we need your bare chip IN the uno. I *think* our best option is to do some modifications to Nick's sketch and output a clock on another pin that will get fed into your chip's clock pin. And also to modify Nick's sketch so that it sets your fuses back to the factory settings. We will deal with the bootloader after we are successful with this part (and trust me, this is going to be a bit tricky.) We are essentially doing a 'recovery' which is tricky even with the proper tools. I have done that before, though.

I am fetching Nick's sketch to look at it and make the necessary modifications.

(BTW, in the future, I would definitely recommend just getting a programmer. These are really cheap on eBay and they work just fine.)

ok, right away I see a few problems. First is that you are picking the 16MHz bootloader, but trying to use the internal clock (which is actually initally set for 1MHz). Fuses are being programmed into your chip by Nick Gammon's sketch, but those fuses are set for a 16MHz crystal.

This would explain why it works in your Uno, but not on the breadboard. This would also explain your programmer not responding error.

So, if I understand you correctly, you would like to have a standalone 328P using the internal calibrated RC clock at 8Mhz. That's fine, we can do that, but let me make sure that is what you want before we start walking through that.

I would personally immediately give up on the thought of trying to transmit the video portion through the Arduino. Just get a wireless camera and receiver with the range you want. Keep the video part separate.

Now, you want two way communication for everything else. The xbee is a well supported (lots of example code, shields, etc...) wireless transceiver for the Arduino for doing that. This would handle the transmission of your RC commands, sensors or whatever else you plan to have on your rover (like turning on/off the camera, IR LEDs, Pan/Tilt.)

You are probably going to want to overlay stuff on the video. For that, look at https://nootropicdesign.com/ve/ (but there are plenty of other projects out there just google 'arduino video overlay'.) This would allow you to use a single LCD for both the video and for status messages or whatever else you want to display.

As I always recommend (well, really it is absolutely essential), sit down and spend some time thinking about your project and draw up a block diagram. Once you have the block diagram, break out the 'blocks' and define each one. Once you can't break the project down any further, then start working on one block at a time.

For example, at the very top level you will have your rover and your ground station. For each one, you need a block diagram of what is involved in it. Both are going to need power supplies. This would be a 'block.' At this point, you don't need all the specifics of how that block works (and usually this is the last block to define because it will depend on the power requirements of the other blocks.) Within the rover, you will have your camera and a transmitter. This is a block. To define that, you need to find an appropriate camera and transmitter that will fit your requirements (weight, resolution, range, power..)

Etc... etc...

Maybe you have done all this already, but it doesn't appear that way from the vague description you have given. But if you have not, you need to do this before you even start buying anything or even asking what to buy.

Not sure if this is helpful, but the IO protection on the ruggeduino is simply a 24V 220 ohm PTC thermistor (PN PRG18BB221MB1RB)

This should be an equivalent through-hole part:
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Vishay/TFPTL15L2200FL2B/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvQRzVR7o8pIcPrhnnD25wXmlNEFnBMIZ0%3d

That's the main reason for my hesitation about posting up a complete design for one of these. So many things could go wrong, especially with an experimenter's unit where people can muck with software and do things like turning both electrodes on at the same time. Of course, that type of stuff could be fool-proofed in hardware, maybe even enough to make me feel comfortable posting something, but then the design would get pretty complex. An easy solution is to use resistors in series with the electrodes to limit current, but then that can reduce its overall effectiveness. I bet the cheapy versions of these handle it that way.

The transformer idea is interesting and not one I have messed with before, so I have been sitting by just watching the thread.

What are you looking for that ruggeduino has in particular?

I completely understand. You have had problems for quite a while now. I am willing to walk you through it if you are willing to start at the beginning. So many different things have been tried by now that I think much has gotten screwed up. At that point, it is better to just start from scratch.

I am trying to go through all the posts to gather information about your set up, but perhaps you can more quickly answer these questions (I may have asked some already...):

What chip are you using? ATmega328P?
What is the frequency and what type of clock? I couldn't find that information yet. You mentioned not having a 16MHz crystal, but what are you using? 8MHZ? Resonator? Internal?
What bootloader? I see you said from Nick Gammon's sketch, so I am trying to figure out which bootloader that is uploading.
Do you have a programmer? If not, we might want to do the Arduino as ISP method instead so we have more control over what is getting installed.

I would also like you to remove all version of Arduino that you have installed and do a fresh install of 1.0.3. We can always move on to 1.5.2 once we get things working.

Once I know the above information, we will make a proper boards.txt file and walk through it together.

According to WestFW, with the :arduino part, this is not an issue. I would have to agree with him because the latest complaint that you are getting doesn't point to that.

However, for reference, this is my folder structure and the location of boards.txt on my working system. This is on a windows machine and I have not used a mac in so long that I don't know how it handles the arduino installation.

The folder that you are showing in your pictures would be your sketchbook folder, which in my case is the Projects folder in my screenshots. I have never tried to put a boards.txt file or any of the core files within that folder (it really doesn't make much sense to do that) but according to westfw, that does work.

BTW, to attach files and pictures, you only need to click on Additional Options below the reply window.

Was just reading the new book, Making Things Move: DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists by Dustyn Roberts and in the introduction was such a wise observation, I thought I would share:

In a conversation I had with Bre Pettis, one of the creators of the CupCake CNC at
MakerBot Industries (www.makerbot.com), I asked if any of the creators were
mechanical engineers by training. He replied “No, if we were, it would have been
impossible.” The CupCake CNC is a miniature 3D printer that uses computer models
to create real 3D objects about the size of a cupcake out of melted plastic. The
MakerBot team members were able to build it from available materials with the tools
they had on hand. A trained engineer would have known how difficult this project
would be and might not have attempted it without the proper resources or funding,
but the MakerBot team members didn’t have the experience to know what they were
getting themselves into. They just kept their goal in mind and figured out a way. This
book is written for anyone who wants to build things that move but has little or no
formal engineering training. In fact, as Bre said, not having engineering training may
help you.

So true. I think I was much more creative before actually becoming an engineer. Words to remember when we think to tell people that something is impossible or just too much effort.

Slip rings provide a connection on a rotating shaft. An example you might be familiar with is a headphone jack. The contacts go all the way around the diameter of the shaft, but are separated. So if you were to rotate the plug, you would not lose connection.

In a POV display, this is how power and signalling is transferred to the "wings" which are rotating.