One Square Inch of Goodness

So a while ago I discovered that I needed a microcontroller in a really tight space. I tried an ATmega328P PU (DIP package), but try as I may, It would not fit. The answer? The ATmega328P AU (TQFP) this is a much smaller package, and for an added bonus, it has 2 extra ADC’s. This a great little board to squeeze in various projects, and opens the door to some very cool stuff I have coming up. Some of you might remember I put this board in a project I did a while ago when space was very limited. It’s just a handy little board to have on hand. 🙂

In the video above, I show some soldering with TQFP packages, as well as a little soldering with hot air. I need to figure out a way to record video from my brain. It would make things so much easier..

Oh, I almost forgot, the flux pen I used, found at Sparkfun.

The Eagle files for this board are on my Github page. Or just the schematic PDF.

15 thoughts on “One Square Inch of Goodness

    • Thanks Geri, I’m using CadSoft Eagle. It’s what I learned on and invested $$$ in software. I’m tempted to try KiCAD, but I don’t have the time to relearn right now. (and I just paid for an updated and upgraded license for Eagle)

      • I see. I’m also using Eagle (free); KiCAD has a horrible UI in my opinion… Well, thanks for the reply and have a nice day!

  1. Google Glass may solve the problem of recording video from your brain 😉

  2. Pingback: Really Small(s) GPS | The Custom Geek

  3. Hi …..i tried to order boards from Oshpark ….but the continue button dont work ….they have no email listed for help….any idea what i do wrong ?

      • oops ……my fault

        tried @ home on my mac…all works great!
        ordered 6 boards of the inchness goodness
        thanx

  4. Eagerly awaiting the appearance of the Goodness in your store. I can see a couple of these ending up in projects (Compass!) that I want to do. Good stuff!

  5. Jeremy, we did a board close to the arduino mini pro, and are now wanting to migrate to this one. Very minimal, clean layout.

    Do you have gerbers or able to order pcb’s from Oshpark ?
    We would love to stuff a couple of these. Else we might try to etch one, as we have a pretty good technique we have done TQFP before.

    Thanks for sharing. Love your videos !

    • Thanks dfense, I will have them for sale (kits and assembled) by the end of tomorrow, barring everything goes as planned. I just added the files on my Github page in the link above. Happy hacking!

  6. Jeremy, have you had any fallout on trying to bootload the TQFP chips ?
    We have built about 10 boards, and are unable to bootload over 4 of them, and probed, scoped about every line possible.

    We see SPI clock working ok, SPI MOSI sending data, but MISO not responding very weak around 0.5v weak waves like a hung tri-state , but might be reaching.

    Another thought might be fuses coming in from production unreliably ?
    We are going to build a jig with a zif socket, and try to program the TQFP seperately. Just wondering if you had any stories to share in a similar way, or showed you approach to bootloading. (avrdude commands etc)

    Looking forward to purchasing your 1 square boards.

    Thanks,
    -john

    • Hi John, I just assembled 10 of the 1 inch boards and I did have one that would not take a bootloader. I’m not sure why, haven’t got that far yet.

      I will probably do a post on the (pogo pin) programming jig I made to bootload these without soldering any pins on them. It won’t win a beauty contest, but it will program chips. I am not (as of right now) putting a bootloader on the chips in the kits, just the assembled boards. I will after I build a jig for bootloading the chips stand alone. I have an idea, but I need to test it before I open my mouth. 😉

      I need to finish the tutorial, photo shoot, labels, and ditto for the FTDI adapters and about 8 other thing I have to go in the store. AHHH! there went my day off!! – just kidding, I don’t get a day off..

    • Jeremy said, “I am not (as of right now) putting a bootloader on the chips in the kits, just the assembled boards.”

      UPDATE- – I will ship all kits with an Arduino bootloader on the IC. I figured out a jig last night that works pretty good. 🙂

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