Making my own ATmega32u4 board

[@meggang9566]

I found the stencil easier to use whilst it was still taped to the spoil board :D

[@CuriousScientist]

Depending on the stencil size, it could work too!

[@isidoromaich7226]

Awesome stuff! I follow you since a while and I can say you mastered very quickly the PCB design🙌 Impressive👍 And it fit perfectly in the tiny hotplate 👌I see coming interesting videos with that board

[@CuriousScientist]

Thank you very much! Yes, this PCB will serve a lot of projects (maybe also as a controller of a larger hot plate, who knows!? ;) ). Also, there will be a spinoff project based on this design. One of the reasons behind building this board was that I wanted to see if my circuit design for this microcontroller works. Since it does, I can carry over this design and build it into a more sophisticated PCB. Within roughly 2 months, I will make that board too.

[@ibewatchinu]

Got a bit confused around 18:00 where the MC is on port 26 but the window title shows port 27 and the code in the IDE wouldn't generate that output. Did I miss something?

[@CuriousScientist]

Hi! Nice catch. When you upload the very first program to this board, like in this case, the COM port can "jump" sometimes. When it was showing COM 26, that was an empty board only with the freshly burned bootloader. Then, I uploaded the code shown on the display via USB. This changed the COM port to COM 27. So that's why, after the upload, the terminal shows COM 27. I just didn't show the part where I changed the port to COM 27.

[@DiyintheGhetto]

Hello, Is it possible to send us the zip file for the whole board and parts please? I don't use PCBway.

[@CuriousScientist]

Hi! Sorry, but the only way to get the PCB (and not the Gerber files) is to order it from PCBWay. I never publish the Gerber files.

[@DiyintheGhetto]

@@CuriousScientist when I click on the link I can’t find the assembly part as you did in your image. Only lets me out the board into the cart and that’s all.

[@CuriousScientist]

@@DiyintheGhetto If you click the link in the description ("Direct link to the board"), you will be redirected to PCBWay's webpage. If you also need the board to be assembled, then you can contact them. I believe that you can leave a comment in the "Manufacturing" text field when you put the board in the cart, or you can just write a mail to them beforehand and ask them. They will be very helpful, I believe. I also added a BOM file to the project page which could allow you to easily assemble the board.

[@DiyintheGhetto]

@@CuriousScientist Thank you.

[@hvuitsme]

Can you make more of this version + nrf24l01?

[@CuriousScientist]

Sure, if you buy me the parts, I am happy to design a board.

[@samuraidriver4x4]

I am having difficulty getting the atmega32u4, they are not in stock or extremely expensive. Halfway tempted to buy a couple of cheap pro mini's with the atmega32u4-AU just to desolder them and use them in my upcoming projects.

[@CuriousScientist]

One thing that motivated me to make my own microcontroller is that I was able to buy a large amount of atmega32u4 chips for a reasonable price. But yes, unfortunately everything is very expensive due to the chip shortage.

[@UKsystems]

it doesn't help that avr microcontrollers are only used now for hobby use

[@tegarraswira4022]

is this board have tx rx and reset to atmega? i still figured how to upload using usb

[@CuriousScientist]

All pins are available on the board. You can't just start uploading via USB however. A bootloader must be burnt on the chip first via ICSP. I am pretty sure I explained this. :) Check my more recent design on this board.

[@wllwffrd]

thanks for the video. is there a way to change the name that the device is recognized as?

[@CuriousScientist]

Hi! I am glad that you found it useful. Sorry, unfortunately, I don't know how to rename it. I have never thought about renaming it. Try to search the same question on Google, maybe someone already solved it.

[@aligul4035]

can you make the videos for other avr atmega micro controller such as atmega 16 etc

[@CuriousScientist]

Sorry, I am not making videos on requests, I am following my own path.

[@MASSKA]

how did you knew what resistors to place and where? As I would like to use a microchip from arduino for my project but Ive no clue what resistors to use and how, and I see that you put a lot of them there

[@CuriousScientist]

Hi! I just read the documentation of the ATMega32u4 microcontroller. Also, check Adafruit's Atmega32u4 breakout board.

[@espaciomaker]

hi @Curious Scientist can you share the schematic proyect

[@CuriousScientist]

Hi! Sorry but the schematic is not available. However you can buy the PCB via the link I provided in the description of the video.

[@espaciomaker]

​@@CuriousScientist Haaa ok, i made a inverse engineering and recreate the schematic, thanks

[@espaciomaker]

​@@CuriousScientist however i will buy the PCB

[@CuriousScientist]

Don't forget that for example Adafruit has a breakout board with the same microcontroller. They share their schematics and you can use that as a reference. Also the reference manual/datasheet of the microcontroller chip also has a "bare minimum" circuit design if I remember correctly.

[@aligul4035]

how you upload burn bootloader complete information is missing

[@CuriousScientist]

13:30

[@simrtech3d]

Hi, what is the model of your heating plate for the pcb? THANKS Sam

[@CuriousScientist]

Hi Sam! You can find the exact product by following the last link in the video description. It is under the measuring devices and tools section.

[@simrtech3d]

@@CuriousScientist thank you, in the meantime I had searched on youtube and I came across the mhp30mini as your model, would you recommend this one or a bigger one?

[@CuriousScientist]

It all comes down to your preferences. I don't know how large PCBs you are going to build, so I can not tell if this is a suitable device for you. I built my own 100x150 mm reflow hot plate, and in 99% of the cases, I prefer to use that one.

[@7alfatech860]

Congrats on the design, soldering and very steady hands. Out of curiosity, did you price it for assembly by PCB Way?

[@CuriousScientist]

Thank you very much! I actually don't have any influence over PCBWay's pricing. But I believe that if you choose the green solder mask which is their basic color, you can get 5 boards for $5. The purple is a bit more special color, so it will be more expensive. I don't know how is their pricing regarding the assembly and parts, but they have a really good support service, so they could answer you easily. All I can say by my experience is that you should be able to get all the passive parts, basically everything, except the microcontroller for about 8-10 USD if you buy the parts in "bulk" (10+ pieces per order), and the cost of the microcontroller can really depend on the source due to the chip shortage. I bought my passives from a regular supplier, so there can be some difference in pricing too.

[@7alfatech860]

@@CuriousScientist Thanks for the reply

[@CuriousScientist]

You're welcome!

[@UploadINaja]

nice explanation. do you know how to hide arduino from windows COM PORT? i want to use my modified joystick library, the joystick works fine but my arduino keep showing under COM PORT. do you have any idea?

[@CuriousScientist]

As long as you connect it to your computer as a serial device, it will show up as a COM port. Otherwise it would not be able to communicate with the computer as a serial device. Why would you want to hide it anyway?

[@UploadINaja]

@@CuriousScientist because i want to try to develop my own joystick as my first product 😅the joystick consist of COM, HID, USB Composite device, and usb input device. the COM port is the one i want to disable so other cannot change the code inside. also i dont need serial communication to the device. any idea mr?

[@CuriousScientist]

I still don't get it. Even if you disable the COM port somehow, people still can change the content of the microcontroller by other ways if they really want. If you really want to hide the COM port, there must be some ways, just use Google.

[@cheesemonster7671]

How do you connect the custom pcb to the Arduino (in my case an UNO if you need to know that)?

[@CuriousScientist]

Hi! Maybe I misunderstand the question, but why would you want to connect this board to another MCU? This board itself is a microcontroller (its Arduino equivalent is the Leonardo or Pro Micro). Nevertheless, if you need to establish connection between two MCUs, you just use the typical ways, for example via serial or i2c.

[@cheesemonster7671]

@@CuriousScientist In the video, you say to connect the Arduino to the pcb in order to burn the bootloader so you can program it. I'm not understanding how to do that

[@CuriousScientist]

Aha, I get it now! It is done typically with ICSP. You'll need to use the SPI pins. Google the "ICSP bootloader" or similar terms, there are many good tutorials.

[@cheesemonster7671]

@@CuriousScientist Thank you

[@CuriousScientist]

You're welcome!

[@sanjaybatra6593]

Sir atmega32u4 is better then atmega328 ? or people prefer to use atmega32u4, bcoz of more I/O pins ?

[@CuriousScientist]

In my opinion it is not about the I/O pins mainly. The 32u4 has native USB! Otherwise they are almost identical.

[@kennydaniel1]

can you send me the file for this? also awesome video!!!!

[@CuriousScientist]

What file? Everything that I wanted to share publicly is already published.

[@kennydaniel1]

@@CuriousScientist the pcb file

[@CuriousScientist]

That is not available publicly, sorry. However you can buy the bare PCB from PCBWay through my project page.