retrolefty:
Well there are two different questions going on here. The OP stated he wanted to build his own arduino board and a second topic of quality/usefulness of inexpensive Asian nano/micro/uno boards.
If anybody wants to put an AVR chip in a breadboard and program it just to see how it's done then they probably should do it.
For building gadgets? The Pro Mini is unbeatable IMHO.
Unless you need USB connectivity, obviously ... or you can use a Tiny85 if it needs to be really tiny. Apart from that, they're unbeatable.
retrolefty:
However that doesn't change my recommendation that a beginner should start off buying one 'real' arduino Uno board, just call it the 'entry cost' to our great community.
