Arduino and ATMega328 chip

If you are into Arduino projects, I bet you will eventually decide to “permanently” install your Arduino board with your project. It’s just $30 but still not that cheap. On the other hand, you can make a stand alone project without the Arduino board, just the chip on the Arduino board and a few other support components will get you the same functions as the Arduino development board. You then get your Arduino board back for your next project and save money with your completed project. Also if you destroy your Arduino while prototyping, sometimes, you only destroyed the ATMEGA328 chip, so replacing it will likely make your Arduino work again.

Unfortunately ATMEGA328 chips are on short supply. So if you see any store that have them in stock, grab a bunch because if you wait, someone else will snatch them up. This happened to me at least twice on sparkfun.com Last time I saw them in stock, I ordered 10 🙂