can I use ATMEGA168 chip alone as Arduino?

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi guys,
I can't find a place to buy arduino in my city, yet I can get my hands on a ATMEGA168 chip.
So I wanted to ask it would be possible to program this chip the same way as arduino?
Also to program it, would it be enough to connect the right pins to the USB or would there some other devices be necessary?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

2

If it is simply a chip, it doesn't have the Arduino bootloader in it.
Unless you have some other way of programming it, you're stuck.

3

Hmm... what might be those ways of getting an arduino bootleader onto a chip?

I mean do I need a programming device like avrisp2 or something or can I just hook up the chip to the usb?

4

Hi,

Google "barebones arduino" get stuff like:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/07/barebones-arduino-on-a-br.html

http://fritzing.org/projects/barebones-arduino/

5

Thanks for the info! Just one more thing to get it clear :slight_smile:
Is there any difference if, for programming my chip, I will either an "AVR Programmer" or a "USB-Serial breakout board" or a simple Direct AVR Parallel Access cable?

6

@artem:

I mean do I need a programming device like avrisp2 or something

Yes

or can I just hook up the chip to the usb?

No

Is there any difference if, for programming my chip, I will either an "AVR Programmer" or a "USB-Serial breakout board" or a simple Direct AVR Parallel Access cable?

Yes there is a difference, you have to match your menu choice with the hardware that you are using.

@Terry
Those are good examples for the hardware part but they aren't much help for the bootloader part. One just mentions that you need a chip with the bootloader, another just tells you that you need to program the chip with a bootloader, and the third recommends a bootloader from Arduino v0010.

Don