ARDUINO for 5 euro (?)

The atmega168 can be bought for 4 .5 euro's, with the 28 pin foot about 5.

This chip has to be bootloaded, so that the Arduino software can write to it.You need for instance AVRISPmkll as an external programmer.

It took me a while to find out which hexfile to load. The Duemilanove needed the ATmegaBOOT_168_ng.hex, the configs given on the page http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learning/Burn168

configs, fuses, whatever -- were ok, but the bootloader to be downloaded (ATmegaBOOT_168.hex) was not. (Although indicated on the Arduino playground page.)

The fact it was not working could be seen when resetting: the LED 13 did not light up. Then transferring a script from the Arduino software gave an error.

With the right bootloader HEX file, the reset worked, and the transferring too.

Ok with this knowledge and experience, we can quickly make ready and program ATMEGA 168IC's and use them for our projects. The chip can be sewn in clothing making smart textiles.

link adaboot: http://wulfden.org/TheShoppe/freeduino/ADABOOT.shtml

One of the ten ATMEGA168 refused to get flashed, it was one of the first, and suffered probably a setting of the DIABLE RESET PIN. That is something to be avoided next time. The solution will cost a bit of effort and time: high voltage programming and making a shield:http://mightyohm.com/blog/2008/09/arduino-based-avr-high-voltage-programmer/

:-) may be that Do It Yourself is for another day!

for the moment 9 out of 10 ATMEGA168's are bootloaded...

(from my DIY blog on the WDKA)