Hello!,
Just a little random question: Can you buy the ATMega328 separately? If so, could you have fun with it on a breadboard?
Thanks!
Like this?
Google ATMega328 barebone
or ATMega328 bare
Thanks!
You should be aware that the microcontroller on the standard boards is ATmega328P, not ATmega328. You can use ATmega328 by installing support for it via a 3rd party hardware package but if you don't realize there is a difference between the two microcontrollers that will cause you a lot of confusion.
I do think it's fun to breadboard a microcontroller circuit because it teaches you exactly what a standard Arduino board is. There is no magic to an Arduino. It's just a microcontroller on a PCB with the minimum support components. Many people just use the Pro Mini or Nano clone boards even in finished products instead of bare microcontrollers because they are actually cheaper and smaller than what you can do as a hobbyist and saves a little time so you may or may not actually directly apply the knowledge you gain later. I think it's cool to make a board without the use of any modules but nobody but me sees the boards so there's not much logic to it. I ended up just throwing a Pro Mini on the board for my last project.
Hi,
google arduino uno bareduino
The kit comes with 328P already loaded with bootloader I think.
Also
https://www.sparkfun.com/wish_lists/15999
Tom.. 
Englishscone:
Hello!,Just a little random question: Can you buy the ATMega328 separately? If so, could you have fun with it on a breadboard?
Thanks!
All an AVR needs to run on internal 8MHz clock is power, ground, 1 or 2 bypass caps and a resistor between 5V and reset.
But it gets more interesting if you hook up leds and buttons, stuff that does things!
Complete Breadboard Arduino walkthrough, multiple ways (clock external/internal) with super easy software provided for 2 different AVR DIP chips. (you gotta make sure not to buy surface mount for breadboards, lol)
He covers the ATmega328P (be sure to get the full datasheet, now at Microchip) and "The Mighty" ATmega1284P. Last summer I got 328P-PU's for about $2.15 ea and a couple of 1284P's for $5.50 each, down from $6.99.
With the same setup you can program boards with AVR chips via the SPI pins. Difference is you don't have to build a circuit but it would be good to know what your board has.
The 1284P has 16K RAM, 36 IO pins with 2 serial ports to the 328P's 1. It's got 4K EEPROM and 128K flash. It's ideal for bigger uses, would make a good SD card(s) file server with lots of buffers.
328P has 2K RAM, 1K EEPROM, 32K flash, 20 IO pins and 1 serial port which is why SoftSerial is a thing. It is a very capable little chip when you squeeze it right, it's got the same core as the 1284.
Nick's chip software covers many AVR's. There's so many, you can pick the smallest that runs your finished project to cut production costs like if a 328P developed project might fit on 168P chips (1K RAM, 16K flash) or on an ATtiny84 or 85 then the end product can cost less and may be smaller.
Another bonus of 328P's (and that whole sub-family, the 168P, 88P, etc) is that they work in the Uno socket once you have them bootloded. Dev the project and pop the chip out to go on a custom product, put a new booted chip in the dev board and use it to make the next thing; that is a stated goal for users on the main Arduino site...
just don't use the official breadboard Arduino tutorial, it's not as good or complete as Nicks. I had to hack my core file chip ID to get the official software to work with my 328P-PU (official uses -PA chip that costs more, does no more) chips. Nick's sketch ID's a whole slew of AVR's, no problem!
Thank you!
Just for fun.... this guy can out-solder me!
https://make.kosakalab.com/arduino/obaka/project-2/index_en.html