Atmega 328 Alone without arduino board

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1

Is it possible atmega 328 alone can be used in my project without arduino developement board but with arduino code.......Can anyone please say about this.. thanks in advance

2

Can you do it?

Of course. Refer to Nick Gammon.

Is it in any way sensible to do it?

Absolutely not! Extreme foolishness!

Just go buy a Pro Mini and you have everything already connected, ready to be mounted in your project.

3

I didnt had any issue dealing with Atmega328 in standalone mode. It's a hurdle and if you are ready to take it, then it's not a big deal.

Steps you need to follow.

  1. You might need to bootload 328. If you are using USBAsp or Arduino as ISP then you may not require bootloading. I bootload all the chips, as some times I program it using USB to TTL adapter.

  2. Regulated 5v power supply.

  3. External crystal, internal crystal is not good for Serial communication.

Below is a schematic I followed to run an Atmega32 in a breadboard. Running 328 is also pretty much similar but pin connection will change based on 328.

1024×706 68.6 KB

Check my blog post

4

Paul__B:
Can you do it?

Of course. Refer to Nick Gammon.

Is it in any way sensible to do it?

Absolutely not! Extreme foolishness!

holy shitee that is cheap. i have a project running on batteries at 3.3v. A simple swap of the regulator and decoupling capacitors to match the datasheet of the regulator would work fine right? Is there something I am overlooking. That price is ridiculous compared to a dip package 328 standalone. Thanks for that link.

5

You might also need to look at the clock speed of pro mini 5v, runs at 16mhz clock, and changing it to 3.3v may not work because of BOD fuse. You can buy a 3.3v board instead which run at 8mhz clock.

6

The same seller, "Alice", who has been found to be pretty reliable and genuine by most people here, sells the 3.3 V, 8 MHz versions (very slightly cheaper) as well as (and why would you want them?) the ATmega168 variants!

Just follow from the link I gave.

7

sarouje:
You might also need to look at the clock speed of pro mini 5v, runs at 16mhz clock, and changing it to 3.3v may not work because of BOD fuse. You can buy a 3.3v board instead which run at 8mhz clock.

With any luck (especialy if you have more than one at hand) and your setup not being too wild on power, you might find 5V 16 MHz Arduino runing just fine on 3.3V (Fed over 5V pin, becouse if you do it ower RAW power pin, voltge will drop about another volt on voltage regulator before reachiung anything else).

Atmega just does not guarantee stable runing in all othervise "on border" conditions when runing Atmega328 on 5V at 16MHz.

Some of my test results:
BLINK 3s Current consumption form SOURCE at indicated voltage: (Led13 OFF / LED13 ON)
ArduinoNano 5V: * 6.1 to 13V (fed wia RAW power): 18mA / 21mA

  • 5V (3.9V after onbord regualtor): 12mA / 14mA
    2.75 (fed directly): 7mA / 8mA (absolute minimum, any less and it hangs ... at 16MHz)

I tested it on cloned nano and mini variants.

And ... Atmega328 does not neccesary need a voltage regulator. It all depends on what you actualy do with it ... on circuit it is conected to, and of course on cleanness and stability of your power source. It is rated form 5.5 V down, but I still have to test how it handless higher voltage without. I guess 6 should still go without problems, so depending on the actual usege, it is feasable to conect it directly to 6V battery and let it run until it hangs when batery voltage drops below 2.75V. :slight_smile: