I'm a fairly new to Arduino coding and circuit designing. I was just wanting to ask a general question about a project that I have in my head that I would love to make for family and friends. My question is after I figure out all the coding and connections I need to make it all work, what would I need to use with my project to run and function the same way with the Arduino but strip the Arduino out of the project to make a all in one circuit without the need of an Arduino?
Just so I can start looking into it and figuring out what I would need for when I reach that point of my project.
Its pretty easy to make up a PCB with the 328P and associated parts so you have multiple copies of the project.
I help folks to that all the time.
Pretty straightforward to convert to a board once you have a working collections of parts.
The problem with that notion is that there is a not insignificant effort in design work, parts inventory and assembly involved in "rolling your own" Arduino equivalent.
The Pro Mini includes all the basic parts required (plus an unnecessary voltage regulator) and in the form of a perfectly serviceable Chinese "clone" (are there any others?) is generally cheaper than obtaining the individual parts.
Using a Pro Mini as a "daughterboard" to a custom PCB - if indeed you need a PCB - makes the process vastly easier.
Note: If you get ATmega328-PU (28-pin DIP) chips from the factory, they won't have a bootloader. The easiest way to install a bootloader is with an ISP device. You can get a "USBasp" clone for under $5 from Amazon/eBay/... (Note that many come with only a 10-pin cable and the Arduino uses a 6-pin connector so be sure to get an adapter if you need one.
