DIY Proto board

With the Arduino board, I'm using the proto shields very often. It all sounds good with the exception that I often have many ongoing projects and only two proto shields. On top of that I would like to start using the ATtiny and not only the Atmega328 and the UNO board is not made for the ATtiny.

The solution? Make my how proto board of course!

I wanted the board to be compact but still contain a mini breadboard so I decided to used one half of a mini breadboard.

To make things convenient, I also wanted to use a ZIF socket to easily change the micro-controller chip(s). Here are all the parts before assembly:

Part list:

1: ZIF socket 28 pin (~$2.95)

2: 8 pin female header (~$0.50 2x)

2: 6 pin female header (~$0.50 2x)

1: 5 pin female header (~$0.50)

1: 4 pin female header (~$0.50)

1: 16MHz Crystal (~$0.95)

1: Mini breadboard (~$3.95)

2: Capacitor Ceramic 0.1uF (~$0.25 2x)

2: Electrolytic Capacitors - 100uF (~$0.35 2x)

1: Voltage Regulator – 5V (~$1.25)

1: 9V Snap Connector (~$1.25)

1: PCB board (~$1.25)

+ some wires for connecting the components.

Total cost: ~$16.0

Here's the final product.

I'm pretty happy with it because it's small, it doesn't need a separate proto shield, I can use it with either 1 Atmega328 or 1-2 ATtiny(s) and the ZIF socket makes things a lot easier when switching chips.