- Home
- Product Categories
- Development Tools
- Arduino Pro Mini 328 - 5V/16MHz
Arduino Pro Mini 328 - 5V/16MHz
**Replacement: **DEV-11113. The new version of the Pro Mini breaks out the ADC 6 and 7 pins! This page is for reference only.
It's blue! It's thin (0.8mm)! It's the Arduino Pro Mini! SparkFun's minimal design approach to Arduino. This is a 5V Arduino running the 16MHz bootloader (select 'Arduino Duemilanove w/ 328' within the Arduino software). Arduino Pro Mini does not come with connectors populated so that you can solder in any connector or wire with any orientation you need. We recommend first time Arduino users start with the Uno R3. It's a great board that will get you up and running quickly. The Arduino Pro series is meant for users that understand the limitations of system voltage (5V), lack of connectors, and USB off board.
We really wanted to minimize the cost of an Arduino. The Arduino Pro Mini is like the Arduino Mini (same pin out) but to keep the cost low, we used all SMD components, made it two layer, etc. This board connects directly to the FTDI Basic Breakout board and supports auto-reset. The Arduino Pro Mini also works with the FTDI cable but the FTDI cable does not bring out the DTR pin so the auto-reset feature will not work.
Not sure which Arduino or Arduino-compatible board is right for you? Check out our Arduino Buying Guide!
**Note: **A portion of this sale is given back to Arduino LLC to help fund continued development of new tools and new IDE features.
- ATmega328 running at 16MHz with external resonator (0.5% tolerance)
- USB connection off board
- Supports auto-reset
- 5V regulator
- Max 150mA output
- Over current protected
- Reverse polarity protected
- DC input 5V up to 12V
- On board Power and Status LEDs* 0.7x1.3" (18x33mm)
- Less than 2 grams
Arduino Pro Mini 328 - 5V/16MHz Product Help and Resources
LED Cloud-Connected Cloud
February 22, 2016
Make an RGB colored cloud light! You can also control it from your phone, or hook up to the weather!
Comments
Looking for answers to technical questions?
We welcome your comments and suggestions below. However, if you are looking for solutions to technical questions please see our Technical Assistance page.
Customer Reviews
No reviews yet.
For those who didn't know. these boards can be programmed using the Arduino USB development board (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=666):
- Configure your software for the USB development board if you haven't already.
- Remove the ATmega IC from USB development board (use an IC remover tool to avoid bending the pins).
- Connect 5v, GND, RESET, TX and RX from this device to the matching connections on the USB development board.
- Upload program.
- When finished, carefully plug the ATmega IC you took off earlier back in to the USB development board.
i vote for AREF pin, way too important to be missing :)
also wondering if the board could be redesigned easily. The ground and reset pins on each side dont seem to need to both be there, and removing one of each would allow the A4/A5 pins to be brought out to the edge.
dont see this here yet; Simple Headers: 24 pin wire wrap socket + 6 pin for the ftdi interface
It's disappointing that AREF is not broken out, since that's often useful when measuring analog signals. Could I suggest adding a test point to the left of C1, where the ground plane fill currently is, to allow easier access for those who want to get at it? Even better would be to route it to a new pin at the bottom of the board near pin 9.
My dream would be to have ADC6 and ADC7 brought out as well, routed to a perpendicular header like the serial stuff if (JP1) just on the opposite side of the board. You could have five pins for A4, A5, A6, A7, and AREF and add only the tiniest bit to the length of the board, down by the reset switch. That would make us analog weenies happy. ;-)
eddiem: eddiem: I've had both my pro-minis fail. One after a few days of use and one after a month. The problem appears to be clock related. Replacing the SM resonator with a through hole version brought one back to life but it failed again. It was running nicely when I went to bed and totally dead in the morning.
The first time it failed I couldn't access it via ISP but the second time it failed I could still program/verify etc.
I'm planning to get a couple more when they are back in stock and use them for different applications - hopefully the new batch will be better.
I should mention I also had a pro-328 fail with similar symptoms while others have been rock solid asis the USB aurduino. All the boards that failed were fairly early versions.
Update,
Nate has been in touch to see what he could do to help. Nice to see someone has good competent customer support.
I think the 5v regulator LK112SM50TR would be an easy replacement (It is also sot23-5) and would push the output current from 150mA to 200mA.
[product superceded[
I plugged my regulated 5v power supply into a jack, then ran the +/- to my 5v Pro Mini's VCC and GND. I really should have checked the polarity of the jack, but I didn't and it was opposite of what I assumed. I plugged it in and the thing literally burst into flame. Does "Reverse Polarity Protected" not mean what I think it means?
Oops, wrong product page, I'll repost in the proper one. Good thing I didn't make the internet explode like my pro mini did!
Hello, I just got my Arduino Pro Mini this week. Still really new to Arduino, but while trying to upload I've been getting the error "Serial port
/dev/tty.***-SerialPort-1already in use. Try quiting [sic] any programs using it".I was able to upload once a few days ago when I pushed the FTDI cables in the right way, but no luck since then :\ Just wondering if that's a common problem with this board, or maybe I'm doing something wrong? The red and green leds both light up when plugged in. I did notice that a new serial port seemed to briefly pop up in the menu during the one time I could successfully upload.
Any ideas? Thanks!
Update: re-installed the FTDI drivers, restarted my computer and it finally worked again.
I thought I'd do a smart move by moving from the gravitech Unos (which are rock solid and comes with USB) to these but I'm disappointed now...
The first one failed after 2 month of 8h/day use average. It was simply PWMing 3 channels to a led strip and now it's dead. It's stuck on idk what but all 3 channels are full,all the time.
The second one is about to go into a customer's project and I'm thinking about scrapping it as I won't ship something that fail in a month,not good for the business...
Also,they are very tricky to get running with the arduino IDE with the sparkfun FTDI cable,it took me a couple of tries to get it working correctly.
I don't think they are early versions as they were bought 4 month ago...
Regarding Arduino Pro Mini 328 - 5V/16MHz. I have few questions.
Check out the homepage linked above for answers; http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardProMini
Ok so I finally found the time to use this, and I am having an error "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding". I have everything wire correctly, "soldered" using your FTDI breakout: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716 ??? WTF?
same here have tryed everything and since I'm not new to Arduino think the Board is damaged...
If you get an error " avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00 " You might want to ignore the suggestion above and change the board to "Arduino Mini w ATmega328"
No mounting holes D_;{
Quick question: I see that it's rated 5-12V, would it work relliably with a car's 12V supply which is 11.8-13.8 V or do I really need a 7809 in between to even things out?
EDIT:
According to the datasheet of the MIC5205 I get :
Supply Input Voltage (VIN)............–20V to +20V Enable Input Voltage (VEN)............–20V to +20V Input Voltage(VIN)....................+2.5V to +16V Enable Input Voltage VEN).............0V to VIN
As I see nothing else hardwired to the RAW pin else than U2,am I correct assuming this won't fail plugged to a Car battery?
thx
Is there any way we can get the code that comes preloaded on these? I love the "bouncing ball" effect!
too bad there isn't any shields for these...
Oh yes, there is! Check these cuties out: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9709
Hello... I have an Arduino Pro Mini 328 5v and a FTDI Basic Breakout 5v. If I connect the USB I get 5v from the PC. If I also connect RAW input on the Mini to 12v it goes to the on-board regulator and makes 5v, so I'm now feeding the Mini 5v from both sources. Is this a problem? 73, Garitron.
Update: Since I have the FTDI board wired to the Arduino with individual wire-wrap wires, rather than a soldered-in header, I was able to disconnect the Vcc feeding into the Arduino from the USB source. This eliminated the two sources of +5 feeding the same circuitry. Bullet dodged. 73, Garitron
Will this board work with the "Arduino as ISP" sketch?
Which is to say, this is the arduino I have on hand, but I'd like to program a few of the raw Atmegas I have around ala http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=1229
Hi All
I have a rather simple question on burning a bootloader into the Ardruino pro - in general how much can be hanging onto the critical programing pins (such as SCK in this case)before they affect the ISP. Is there a rule of thumb?
SFE Eagle footprint doesn't include I2C!
(I'm in therapy already for Arduino negativity - the absence of I2C in the regular pinout of Ard-Mini isn't helpful.)
In the schematics I see that the AREF is not connected to VCC. Is't this wrong? I tested it and it seems to think that AREF is VCC ( 5v) but how can it do so when AFREF is not connected to VCC, I have no idea.
I'm not completely sure, but the Arduino AREF page seems to suggest the active reference voltage (5V default on this board) will be outputted to the AREF pin.
I have had two of these things fail on me in the last few weeks. I have mine connected to 5.2 V on the RAW pin, and the GND, VCC, TX, and RX are connected to the XBEE Explorer regulated board. It works fine for awhile, then the TX/RX pins on the Arduino just go bad. Anyone else have this problem????!!!
You're going to need more than 5.2V for the RAW pin. The RAW pin uses a regulator, which has a dropout voltage of ~1.7V. This means the board is only getting 3.5V, which is not enough. If you have to use the 5.2V supply I would suggest you get the 3.3V version.
Another option would be to regulate to 5V outside of the board and connect to any VCC pin.
Note that the pro mini on this board breaks out all 6 Analog pins, meaning you will have to select the Uno on the board selection menu.
The schematics of 5V and the 3.3 Arduino Pro mini seems to be the same. So I was wondering what is the exact difference. It is just the crystal frequency and the Voltage regulator?
Thanks
heliguy
I saw the pro minis at Microcenter... but they're all 3.3Vs? Is there a reason why SparkFun only has the 3.3v in retail packaging, but not the 5v?
Can the digital IOs be used as analog ones?
Analog pins can be used as digital pins though.
A0-A5 are the only pins that can be used as analog inputs.
I'm using one of these for an r/c car project. The power is coming from 4 AA batteries. So, this is only 6v.
Is it recommended that I plug the 6v into the RAW or 5v (Vin / Vcc) pin to power the board.
If I plug it into the RAW will the 5v rail actually provide a full 5v?
The voltage regulator is a MIC5205 which I think needs (double check the datasheet) 300mV above the output to properly regulate, so you should be OK if RAW is above 5.3V.
I wouldn't recommend putting 6V directly onto the 5V bus - that goes directly to the AVR, which is only rated up to 5.5V.
I just noticed the 1.2 schematic and board layout... change the Pads to the larger size is great, BUT you totally move the A4/A5 pinblock/header... for boards that were layed out for the pre v1.2 placement, it looks like they will have to be redone to use this new layout :(.... That's never good... Others be advised, I have no idea when the 1.2 boards will be available, but that placement of those pins has change it appears.
How can i connect the "FTDI Cable 5V"? Can i do that?
Yes, you should be able to. You'll need to solder some header pins into the six pins at the end opposite the reset button, marked blk, gnd, vcc, rxi, txo, and grn. Then you plug your cable in with green in "grn" and black in "blk" and you're good to go.
nice
Can this be used directly with the Xbee Explorer(Regulated) like the Arduino Pro using the FTDI port at the end
@mhkabir - I've successfully used this model with the XBee Explorer and USA versions of the XBee Series 1 and 2(ZB), standard and pro models. With series 2, I was able to use 115200 baud rate without any issues. For Series 1, I had to use 57600 baud instead (didn't have time to debug further, but was using the same XBee Arduino library and source code running AT API commands that work the same on both series)
/removed by user/
what is the digital analog numbers like how many of each do this have am i right there are 4 analog and 12 digital?
14 digital (6 of which are pwm capable) and 6 analog. Full specs here: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardProMini
Stock ETA?
sorry this is a very dumb question im new. Where can i hook up a battery to this little dude
As idolstar said, raw is the pin to use, as long as your battery puts out more then 5 volts by some value, I believe 1.5v? Anyway, people have mentioned that 6v should be acceptable, 9v wouldn't hurt, I don't think?
Anyone more knowledgeable about this? Oh, above a sparkfun employee said 9v is fine (direct quote from TonyK above) "Yes. The Pro Mini 5v can have an input voltage range from 5v-12v."
Hook the positive end up to the "RAW" pin, and the negative to "GND."
I realize that these comments are very old, but regarding the process that "nibbler" described: Would it be necessary to remove the IC, or could one simply hook up the Pro Mini to the VCC, GND, TX, RX and RESET pins?
I believe the problem with keeping the IC inside is that it will respond to the programmer instructions concurrently with the pro-mini-328's chip, and the collisions will prevent you from programming the pro-mini.
just out of curiosity, in regards to the schematic - why 10K ohm on the power led?
This board can NOT be programmed with the USBtinyISP as is. R6 (330 Ohm) is too small, needs to be 1K like on Ardruino Pro for this programmer to work. Symptoms: 'avrdude' fails with 'initialization failed, rc=-1 .. Double check connections..' It is the same message as if the board is not connected at all.
extreme noob question (apologies...) I have a few prototypes near completion with my uno, and now would like to build them up as the finished version. To save time/space/cash, am I correct to assume if I get the FTDI breakout, a mini USB cable, and this mini pro, The only difference I'll see ids that I need to solder in the connections and 5v supply?
I would like to see the Sparkfun.lbr updated with pins for the programming side also wired up (the FTDI part).
Can you also put up a dimensional drawing please? By my estimate from the image, the 2 rows of contacts down the long sides are 0.1" spacing and 0.595" apart. Is this correct?
You can check the Eagle files for exact dimensions of the board. Eagle is free to download if you don't already have it.
So according to the specs would this run just fine using a regular 9v battery ? Bought one but havent wired it up yet :)
Yes. The Pro Mini 5v can have an input voltage range from 5v-12v.
Bought this, uploaded the blink sketch and everything worked, after some soldering, can't upload no more, but I see the power led on...<br />
There's nothing making contact between pins...<br />
:(
I ordered one of these a week ago, and it wasn't until I tested it with a multimeter that I realized I might have received a 3.3V version. VCC is supposed to output around 5V, correct? My multimeter reads 3.4V.
Someone please just tell me I'm an idiot and this is normal behavior. I don't want to resolder all my connections.
I bought ten of these a year ago and I've had three of them fail, not happy :(
Both of the units I purchased have failed after running successfully for a while. Neither will load a sketch anymore. I'm using the FTDI bssic breakout board for programming. At first I thought it was the FTDI so I bought a second one, but no luck. These things do seem to be pretty tempermental. I've gone to AVR development boards for permanent implementations.
Were they dead on arrival or did they fail after prototyping, etc?
I think one was DOA and two failed after a couple of months. They had sockets soldered on to the holes and were mounted on pins for ease of removal for code updates. After a little haggling I was able to get them replaced.
It's really, really, really tiny. Not a problem for my needs, but I was expecting it to be about the size of my thumb. It's closer to the size of my thumbnail, than my thumb.
I'm trying to use it with the dings-and-dents 5v power supply - we'll see if it's enough. I know the voltage regulator probably wants a higher input voltage...
You have a huge thumbnail.
You can see my comments on this board here:
http://chrismeyer.org/wordpress/2010/02/how-to-program-sparkfun-arduino-pro-mini/
The crystal is very poor quality, gaining 20 second/5 hours in each of my tests (against a stopwatch and a Duemilanove 328 running identical software/hardware)
Gotta love necro posting...
Anyways, it looks like the resonator in use (490-1198-1-ND?) actually has a ceramic element instead of a more precise quartz one. If the digikey part I found is the correct one, frequency accuracy is only .5% (5ppt), MUCH lower than quartz crystal (10-50ppm). The accuracy you're seeing (~1ppt) is actually 5 times better than what the datasheet suggests you'd get!
Of course the reason for this less accurate resonator is cost... and integrating the capacitors.
SlyVixsky: Hoping to get a few of these soon. Unusual question: does anyone know the overall thickness of the board and components?
My micrometer says the board itself is 0.85mm and overall height (measuring from the bottom of the board to the top of the highest components, which are the power supply capacitors C13 and C19) is 2.56mm.
Thanks much for the measurements
Hoping to get a few of these soon. Unusual question: does anyone know the overall thickness of the board and components?
eddiem: I've had both my pro-minis fail. One after a few days of use and one after a month. The problem appears to be clock related. Replacing the SM resonator with a through hole version brought one back to life but it failed again. It was running nicely when I went to bed and totally dead in the morning.
The first time it failed I couldn't access it via ISP but the second time it failed I could still program/verify etc.
I'm planning to get a couple more when they are back in stock and use them for different applications - hopefully the new batch will be better.
I should mention I also had a pro-328 fail with similar symptoms while others have been rock solid asis the USB aurduino. All the boards that failed were fairly early versions.
I've had both my pro-minis fail. One after a few days of use and one after a month. The problem appears to be clock related. Replacing the SM resonator with a through hole version brought one back to life but it failed again. It was running nicely when I went to bed and totally dead in the morning.
The first time it failed I couldn't access it via ISP but the second time it failed I could still program/verify etc.
I'm planning to get a couple more when they are back in stock and use them for different applications - hopefully the new batch will be better.
JustinHoMi: Has anyone tried burning a new bootloader to these? I'm not having much luck using a parallel programmer.
Yes.
You can see my adaptor here.
http://nerdipedia.com/tiki-index.php?page=Arduino+Pro+Mini+&structure=index
"Max 150mA output"
That's for the onboard LDO Regulator (If you're using the "RAW" pin for 5-12V DC Input. If you're feeding VCC directly, I'm assuming you can do more. The recommended limit for each pin is 20mA at 5V, along with the IC limits below:
From the ATmega328P Datasheet [p.305]:
"1] The sum of all [Current on High Outputs], for ports C0 - C5, D0- D4, should not exceed 150 mA."
C0-C5 are the ADC Ports marked on the board as A0-A3 and the unmarked A4 and A5.
D0-D4 are marked as RXI, TX0, D2, D3, and D4 respectively.
"2] The sum of all [Current on High Outputs], for ports B0 - B5, D5 - D7, XTAL1, XTAL2 should not exceed 150 mA."
B0-B5 are D8, D9, D10, MOSI, MISO and SCK.
D5-D7 are D5, D6, and D7.
Hope this helps clear things up a bit.
Now what? The programming header is flipped on my pro minis! Black and green are on opposite ends compared to the picture. I had to do a new revision of my pcb.
Both the v10 on the arduino site and the v11 eagle files here are wrong compared to the actual cards I received. Are the reference files or my boards outdated?
/Rasmus, Sweden
Sorry Rasmus! We rotated the FTDI connection back in November of 2008. We will get the pictures updated. Eagle file version 1.1 posted in description is correct and has BLK connection on left of board.
One thing that hung me up for a few days, make sure to set your software 'board' to Arduino Duemilanove w/ ATmega328, even though this is the Pro Mini.
Has anyone tried burning a new bootloader to these? I'm not having much luck using a parallel programmer.
What sort of temperature range are these rated for? Can they be safely mounted in a car?
The Pro Mini page on the Arduino website is outdated. It lists it as using the ATmega168 rather than the 328. I assume that it has the same Flash/SRAM/EEPROM specs as the Duemilanove 328 (i.e. 32KB Flash -2 KB for bootloader, 2KB SRAM, 1KB EEPROM)? Might want to list the full specs here.
Question: I have noticed you don't use plated through holes - why?
A very late reply to your question! All the holes are plated through. What you are seeing is the vias are 'tented' or covered up by the soldermask. This is for aesthetic reasons - makes the silkscreen more readable.