Hi, I need help with putting my project from a breadboard to a PCB. Can someone please point me to a tutorial on how to solder the parts to the PCB. I am ok with soldering but need help on how to solder 7 segment LED, resistors and jumpers to the PCB. Also I need to connect the wires from Arduino to the PCB. Do i solder them to arduino pins?...Also the distance from the arduino to the PCB will be about 2 feets. Is there a limit on how long the wire can be from the arduino to PCB. Thanks for all the help!!
You have several options here. We can better help you realize your design if we know more. Like, what is it doing? What's involved? Do you have pictures of it?
The short answer could be as easy as sticking your pieces on perf board and solder the necessary wire connections. Take a 2-feet long piece of wire with enough conductors and connect your Arduino to your project. And unless you want to make your Arduino a semi-permanent fixture to your design, personally I wouldn't solder stuff to it. I always keep my Arduino for protoyping only. Once the project has been realized, and everything worked out, I will create a custom board that I can load the Arduino bootloader on and it will run by itself, separate from my Arduino board. I can now use it for other projects.
The longer answer could be that you design your own PCB, send it to a fabrication house and when you get it back, you hand solder your parts and you have yourself a custom board, with custom holes to your specifications.
For example, here's a composite image of my last project. I started with the schematics and breadboard testing. Once that was working, I used the schematic to create the board design and sent it off to a fabrication house. Got the boards back about a week and a half later. All of my parts were SMD, so I did a reflow on them. The exceptions were the Nordic module (red square ontop with antenna sticking out) and the status LEDs (blue and yellow) because they needed to stick out of the enclosure these went in. Those I hand soldered.
This has it's own AtMega328P on board and once the Arduino bootloader is burned on it, I no longer need my Arduino board to run anything. It's all self contained. If I need to reprogram it with a new sketch, I simply connect the FTDI cable and program away.
Yeah it really depend on the complexity and for how much money,
if its really complex sometimes its worth the money to make a custom pcb, even just to make sure the wires is right
if its a simple thing then regular perfboard is great and effecientand
Check out pololu.com, they have female terminated wires and crimp connector housings for making up wire assemblies to go from the female arduino headers over to your board - to additional headers, or whatever you are using.
Thanks guys for all the suggestions. Basically the PCB will have a shift register and 1 Digit 7 segment LED and resistors driving the LED. Basically I am building a scoreboard for a foosball table. The LED's will be mounted on the sides to the table and I am thinking for putting the arduino under the table in the center and run cables from there to the PCB mounted on the side of the table
Kirash4, I like the idea of making a customs board to drive the LED's. So basically I can just get a atmega328 and load the boot loader to it?...Right now I have a 12v 2Amps power adapter that is providing the current to the arduino. I want to use the same adapter for the custom board aswell. How should I provide the current and voltage to the Atmega chip? Install a 2.1mm adapter to the customs board?
For a custom board, you're looking at a few more components. Since you're going to be providing 12V, you're going to need a regulator on board to regulate that down to 5V, or 3.3V, depending on what the specs on the 7-segment LED are. If you have a 5V adapter, you'll be fine without (though personally I would still put a regulator on board to smooth out the line, but that's just me.)
So as 12V, you'll need
a regulator plus the necessary caps to smooth out the ripples
the AtMega itself plus necessary caps around it
the 7-segment LED plus necessary resistors around it
and the barrel connector for the adapter
Break out the necessary pins for SPI (so you can burn the bootloader), and I would also break out the FTDI pins to make re-programming easier in the future. Pretty small order, easily done. You don't need your Arduino anymore. Use it for your next great project.
Yes, with a 5V regulator (7805 type) to make 5V for the atmega.
16 MHz xtal, two 22 pf caps, 10K reset resistor, 3-4 100nF caps, 14 current limit resistors for the displays, all available inexpensively from dipmicro.com
You will have 2 digits, one for each side?
7 outputs from arduino for each display, 3 buttons for score (left score up, right score up, reset).
17 total.
Leave D0,D1 free to download sketches.
Why the shift register?
Look at kingbrightusa.com , maybe get a couple of big digits! Common anode - run from 12V, add ULN2003/ULN2803 to buffer arduino output to sink current to make them light up.
I wonder, for what he's doing, is the external crystal really necessary? It's just lighting up the LEDs, displaying numbers ... not like he's doing some high speed serial, or keeping (semi accurate) time ...
I put one in everything. Price is minimal, like 31 cents, lets the board act just like an arduino when done, no fuse fooling around needed.
Thanks a lot for the diagram!!...I still don't understand some stuff from it, but I will get the part first and then if I have any questions I will ask again. Really appreciate your help!!
No problem.Its just the minimal parts needed to mimic an arduino (the left side of the diagram), with some LEDs and switches connected (the right side).
So I have ordered the parts to build the power jack for the atmega328p.
- 5V regulator
- DC Barrel Jack Adapter
- SPDT Mini Power Switch
- Electrolytic Decoupling Capacitors - 10uF/25V
- Electrolytic Decoupling Capacitors - 100uF/25V
- Diode Rectifier - 1A 50V
- Resettable Fuse PTC
- 12v 2A adapter
I have couple of questions.
How much current can the draw from the +5v pin and the vin pin?. The reason I am asking this because I need to drive two 7 seg LED's and two IR sensors and two shift registers. I am thinking I will need about 1A of current in total. If I can get 500 mA from +5v pin and 500mA from vin pin that would be perfect.
Also
- Does those two pins output the same current they are inputted with?
- Will the 5v regulator limit the current or any of the caps or diodes?
Thanks for any help!
I've used solderless breadboard like [u]this[/u] (same as KirAsh4 used on his breadboard) for a few permanent projects. I built a car alarm on one of these about 15 years ago (different microcontroller). It's been running continuously (it runs code even when not armed) all of that time with no problems... even with the vibration of a car. I've done a couple of other projects that have been working for several years too, although not continuously and not in such a tough environment.
It takes-up a little more space, but PC boards are too expensive in single quantities and perfboard is "messy".
" perfboard is "messy" "
I would agree when trying to glom things together using point to point soldering.
Using wirewrap you can make permanent projects that are incredibly neat & tidy.I've made lots of them.
jat421,
Are you adding components to an existing arduino, or building 1 up froms scratch?
The 7 segment LEDs should only take 140mA each, the shift registers very little, the sensors likely not much either. I really doubt you need more than 350mA of current total. An Uno type arduino can handle that, even if running from the 500mA-only capable USB source. Regulators are good for 800mA, as long as the voltage drop across it is not so high as to make it overheat.
I would have just ordered a 5V regulator (you still can!)
http://www.dipmicro.com/store/DCA-0510
http://www.dipmicro.com/store/DCA-0520
or maybe a 7.5v if you feel you must go thru a 5v regulator
http://www.dipmicro.com/store/DCA-07510
Thanks guys for the suggestions.
CrossRoads, I am building up from scratch. Thanks yea I think I will go with you idea and just get a 5v 1A adapter(regulated) and then I won't have to use the 5v regulator. This helps a lots thanks again guys. I will post back once I have everything up and running hopefully :)...My first project expect the blinking LED, if you want to call that a project lol.
An alternative to perfboard, wire wrap or PCB for one-off projects is stripboard. As with a PCB, the finished product is robust and it's relatively easy to replace components. The only disadvantage I can think of is that it requires a little more board area than the alternatives, to make room for wire links and track breaks. You can mount SMD components on perfboard using adapters.
Yep, I've done some permanent and semi permanent projects using solderless breadboards and they hold up just fine. Though I've never gone as far as creating something in a high vibration situation like a car. 
Then again, if you stick it somewhere where it doesn't get much movement, maybe pad it with some foam, it will probably outlast the car ...