szangvil:
I want to design a bare-minimum board based on the Atmega328. I want to be able to use chips without a bootloader since they are cheaper. I want to save space and not have the ISP connection on my board at all. I do need the FTDI chip for future updates.So my question is, can I burn a bootloader directly from a USB connection (connected to the FTDI chip connected to the RX and TX pins on the 328)?
No you can't. Only a bootloader program already installed onto the chip knows how to program a sketch via the USB serial link. So you have to first burn a bootloader onto the chip or buy a chip that has the bootloader already burned into it.
Lefty