Self Replicating Arduino – Clone Arduino UNO Into ATtiny85 Microcontroller

I know, this is an old and repeated project but it’s still fresh and useful. Who doesn’t use Arduino and wish to have an Arduino clone?

And who doesn’t want to make his Arduino project permanent?

But the problem is that when you make your Arduino project permanent you are giving away your favorite Arduino board to that project and you are wasting a valuable prototyping tool for this single project.

You may go and buy another Arduino board. That’s fine. But what if you could use a less expensive Microcontroller chip and a smaller footprint one?

That’s exactly what happened with me when I decided to make my Arduino project permanent and on a remote area. That means that I couldn’t use my Arduino UNO board anymore.

So I’ve decided to go through it and build my own Arduino UNO clone using this little Atmel ATtiny85 Microcontroller chip.

Step 1: Install ATiny on Arduino IDE

I first made this step in a separate video to try my hand into it to get myself in action.

Note:

I’m using Arduino UNO 1.8 so it’s much easier than older versions.

Just follow the following steps:

– Get the link from here and copy it.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/damellis/attiny/ide-1.6.x-boards-manager/package_damellis_attiny_index.json

– Open File –> Preferences. Paste the link in Additional Board Manager text box.

– Open Tools –> Board –> Boards Manager

– Choose attiny and press Install

Now you have Attiny in Arduino IDE.

Step 2: Programming Circuit – Connect ATtiny to Arduino UNO

Arduino Uno – ATtiny85

5V – Vcc

Gnd – Gnd

Pin 13 – Pin 2

Pin 12 – Pin 1

Pin 11 – Pin 0

Pin 10 – Reset

And don’t forget that 10uF capacitor.

GND of Arduino to Cathode

Reset of Arduino to Anode

I’ve read that warning that if you didn’t connect the capacitor you may overwrite your Arduino UNO Bootloader by mistake.Add TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload

Step 3: Prepare Arduino UNO to Be an ISP Programmer

Here, you need to upload the ArduinoISP sketch on Arduino UNO board to act as an ISP Programmer.

Choose

File —> Examples —> 11.ArduinoISP —> ArduinoISP

And then choose

Sketch —> UploadAdd TipAsk QuestionCommentDownload

Step 4: Burn the Bootloader

Now choose ATtiny 85 as follows:

Tools —> Boards: ATtiny25/45/85

Tools —> Processor: ATtiny85

Tools —> Clock: Internal 8MHz

Tools —> Programmer: Arduino as ISP

Now you are ready to burn the Arduino Bootloader on ATtiny85 as follows:

Tools —> Burn Bootloader

First I got this error message. Then I checked the connection and it just worked fine without any error.

Step 5: Upload the Blink Sketch – or Just Any Other Sketch

Now you can program ATtiny85 just as any other Arduino Board.

Just choose the desired sketch and then choose upload.

Note:

You need to handle the differences between Arduino UNO board and ATtiny85 Pin Mapping.

For example, In the Blink sketch, you can see that LED 13 is named LED_BuiltIn. This gives error when compiling the Blink sketch for ATtiny85 Microcontroller. So you need to change it to another PIN on ATtiny85.

Step 6: Test Your New ATtiny Arduino

Congratulations. Now you officially have your new Arduino intelligence on a small ATtiny85Microcontroller that costs about $2.

Now you can connect it to VCC and GND and connect the LED to PIN 0 and GND.