Bare Bones Board

The Bare Bones Board is an Arduino-compatible board (Freeduino) that implements the functionality of the Arduino Diecimila, on a smaller printed circuit board, by removing the USB communications chip to a cable. More on this below. It is completely compatible with the Arduino project software and IDE. Currently the Bare Bones Board is listed on the Arduino site as "Recommended Third-Party Hardware". It has also gained a devoted following among Arduino users, as a convenient, effective, and low-cost hardware solution.

Arduino is an open-source microcontroller hardware, and software, environment, closely related to the Wiring and Processing open-source initiatives. The microcontroller uses an Atmel Atmega168 chip programmed with a bootloader, so no dedicated programming hardware is required. The software IDE has been developed in tandem with the Processing and Wiring initiatives and customized for the Arduino environment.

Arduino is programmed in the "C" programming language, with an integrated development environment (IDE) engineered for beginning programmers. The language includes support for desirable microcontroller features such as 32 bit and floating point math and many standard C libraries. Projects that outgrow the Bare-Bones Board's capabilities can easily be ported to the Wiring Board, which is based on the Atmega128 chip.

Atmega168 features, upon which the BBB is based:

14k flash program storage
1k RAM for program memory
6 PWM outputs
6 A/D inputs
UART and SPI interfaces
Hardware interrupts
20 general purpose I/O pins (shared with PWM and Analog pins)
16 MHz RISC microcontroller
Open-source hardware, IDE, bootloader
Easy upgrade to more powerful hardware (Wiring)

Arduino home
Wiring home
Processing home

New!
USB BUB - USB adapter.

The currently shipping mode of the BBB is Rev. D

Instructions for Bare-Bones Board Rev. C & D
Who is using the Bare Bones Board?

The Bare-Bones Board

The Bare-Bones Board was engineered to be a low-cost, breadboard-friendly Arduino-compatible especially useful for education. The USB communications chip has been removed to a cable which you only need purchase once. This has several advantages.

• It saves the cost of repeatedly paying for the communications chip.

• It makes the board 1/3 smaller in both dimensions than the Arduino® NG board.

• Designed with all through-hole parts for easy assembly by beginners.

• Using the cable makes it simple to embed "Arduino-compatibility" unto other boards, see the Servo project for an example.

The board was specifically designed to work with a FTDI TTL-232R USB-to-TTL serial cable, available below. The FTDI cable is also a handy way to debug lots of other microcontroller serial connections and will work anywhere you need a solid USB to TTL serial connection.

A low-cost (<$5.00) serial adapter is also available for those wishing to use an RS232 port. See the Connect page.

BBB Features:

Despite the Bare-Bones name, the BBB is a full featured Arduino-compatible that includes the vast majority of the functionality of the Arduino Diecimila. The Rev C and later even includes some analog noise-reduction features not found on other official Arduino boards. Breadboard-friendly options on the BBB are also not found on other official Arduino boards.

• Auto-reset and "Diecimila" bootloader for "one-click" uploads and faster times to get to the sketch. Software chip resets.

• Designed with male header pins on bottom to insert directly into solderless breadboards, saving a lot of wiring and fuss.

• Analog inputs have adjacent +5V and Ground buses to make interfacing sensors easy, using a three pin female header or servo cable.

• Flexible power options USB/External, onboard voltage regulator that can be used with either TO92 or TO220 voltage regulators.

• Convenient pins to power, (or draw power from) breadboard power buses, a shunt allows easy switching between options.

Revisions

The photos and instructions on the website are currently for the Rev D version of the board, which added only one capacitor and one header pin (reset) to the board to implement the "one-click" upload scheme now used on the Diecimila.

In Rev. C, an inductor and capacitor were added across the AVCC pin. This is recommended in the Atmega datasheet but not included in most other Arduino implementations. Some hole sizes were changed in the name of easier assembly, and the analog pins were moved over to accommodate readily available commercial connectors.

Older Rev. B and Rev. C photos and instructions can be found here.

Just the circuit board to build your own, get together for a club build, or embed in other projects.

Programmed Atmega168 Chips:

• Programmed with Diecimila bootloader for Arduino.

• For replacement of older Arduino's Atmega8 chips or building your own Bare-Bones Board, or breadboard Arduino-compatibles.

• Chips will be provided with the Diecimila bootloader but Adaboot or NG bootloader can be provided on request.

BBB Kits and Assembled:

The kit now contains both female and male 3x7 headers for the analog block.

See the headers page for 3 pin male and female headers for connecting to servos or analog sensors to the analog block.

Assembled kits:

Assembled kits are now provided with female 3x7 headers by default. Male headers available on request.

Header pins on digital pins can be provided (or installed) in several options:

Male or female headers facing in either direction. Or double male headers that face both up and down. Include a note in the paypal note field (better) or send an additional email on assembled options.

Also see the headers page for 3 pin male and female headers for connecting to servos or analog sensors.

Usually ships in 24 hours.

* For educational customers only, classroom packs contains one extra board, programmed Atmega168, resonator and voltage regulator.

* For educational customers only, classroom packs contain one extra board, programmed Atmega168, resonator and voltage regulator.

FTDI TTL-232R USB-to-TTL serial cable.

Useful for connecting to BBB, RBBB and custom "breadboard Arduino's". Also highly useful for providing serial to USB interface for other microcontrollers (Basic Stamp, PICAXE etc.).

Larger quantity discounts on the Connect page.

80 in stock.

Here is a green, Bare-Bones Board on a breadboard. Note the two pins on the right side which power the breadboard buses.

The pins in the kit can be inserted in either direction for use with either breadboards or shield boards.

Note that all boards currently shipping have white solder mask, as shown above. Assembled boards have female headers as the default option.

Support Files

Who is using the Bare Bones Board?
Instructions for Bare-Bones Board Rev. C
Upgrading the Rev. C board for Diecimila-like auto-reset
BBB Rev C Schematic PDF
The CAD files for the BBB were done in the Mac PCB layout package Osmond. There is a free version for small boards.
Osmond CAD file for Bare-Bones Board Rev. D2

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