Might want to pin this...

I thought I _had_ pinned it but now there is no option to do that even! Wonderful KZfaq studio strikes again! Edit: it seems I can only do this when looking at the comments just for this video! Doh!

Darn.....well there had better be video evidence of Benny doing the pulling, to refute any allegations of a fix! Lol!

Ralph S Bacon I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Not sure if you got my email or it pinged back again. Thanks

I'll let everyone know in due course. I went to the post office today to get all the stamps (my wife had to drive me due to my poor eyesight) and guess what? THEY HAD NO STAMPS. Really. Just stupid local stamps, none for even Europe, let alone USA or Australia. Now I will go to the MAIN post office on Tuesday (chauffeured once again my dear lady wife). UK ones have been sent out already as I had those stamps.

Very nice of you to take the time out to say so, Gary, thanks for being part of my Arduinite community!

That's the hope, David, breathe more life into the old dog. Such a shame Arduino didn't do this.

You are most welcome, Jerry. That project sounds quite ambitious, good luck with that, I hope it goes well.

I think that is the biggest advantage arduino has over the stm32 boards is the libraries.

As I said in my blog, there is life in the old dog yet. And just to wring every ounce of comedy out of that line, no I don't mean me.

If you want a PCB, Chris, let me know, a couple are still available. The 328PB is almost pin compatible (pins 3 and 6 are new GPIO pins not connected to GND/VCC) so you could make a small change to your PCB (or just not solder/connect those pins) if you want the extra functionality.

Ralph S Bacon thanks for the reply. I’d love a pcb, thank you. I’ll pull the laptop out and I’ll get an email sent.

Ralph S Bacon sent an email. Thank you

Great! It works just like the standard 328P but with more features. Unfortunately it also has the same number of pins, so some GPIO pins are used if you want another UART.

Glad you liked it Curie! Nice to hear from you.

Thank you, Jessica! I think you are buttering me up so I get on with your battery monitor solution, and you'll be pleased to know I have been designing a circuit; next step is to get it on the breadboard to test out my theory. The trouble is, I have to keep doing these videos! Oh well, a price worth paying, I hope. And yes, I totally agree about those displays, very nice indeed. Keep tuned, and thanks for posting.

@@RalphBacon Totally not my intention, just trying to support... but I'll take it as a win ;)

It's what the UNO should now be already, Mark, but there we go.

I'm doing a much more details video in a week or two about JLCPCB SMT assembly PCBs, so keep tuned, Don.

@@RalphBacon Thank you. I look Forward to it. I am seeing a lot using JLCPCB and they have all indicated they made mistakes and had to redo their work, sadly they do not show what they did wrong to correct it.

Glad you like it Sebastian! Just a bit of fun but could prove very useful too!

@@RalphBacon The extra builtin peripherals are certainly always great to have. As soon as timing requirements and/or io-pins come short, using two controllers, communicating with each other might become the prefered solution, already since the funtionality of at least one of them, the one that comes with storage(SD-card), human interface (buttons etc.), display(lcd), etc. might be re-used in the next complex project as is, while the actual work (ADC, 74HC(T)595, 74HC(T)165, MCP23017, MCP23S17, temp-sensor, gyroscope, ultrasonic range finder, etc. pp.) is done by the second one. At this point a second high speed onboard USART already becomes worth gold nuggets. The extra I²C and SPI might also be usefull quite. I know there was that kind of a 'religious' like war about using either Microchip PIC or Atmel ATmega. But when looking at 16bit PIC compared to ATmega it becomes clear, PIC (PIC15Fxxxx/PIC24FJxxx/PIC32MXxxx) has generally more RAM, while missing EEPROM most the time, and always better as well as more peripherals, ranging from second USART/SPI/I²C, additional timers, ADC/DAC, to NCO (numeric controlled oscillator) and integrated logic cells (compareable to PAL macro-cells). The lack of advanced peripherals in many of the ATMEL controllers could at least be compensated by using more than one ATmega for complex projects, as long as there is the additional io-peripheral for communication at hand, like a second USART/SPI/I²C. Without things tend to become the sort of ugly DIY stuff, that is so well kopwn for not working very well most the time. So making use of a 328PB along with the Arduino UNO R3 is a great step foreward for the more complex projects, that involve data storage (logging), display and/or some sort of human interaction, while the more timing critical sensorics can be served from the second controller. --- In this sense, a great project to introduce the 328PB to a UNO R3 DIP socket board by some adapter PCB!

One interesting topic you raise here, is to use additional µC for some functions, something proposed by another viewer. Basically, instead of trying to cram everything into one MCU, running out of pins, having the code run slowly with potential blocking delays the idea is to offload some processing to simple, small MCUs that do one thing. For example, use an ATTiny85 to get the temperature and humidity from a sensor and then just query that device to get the _results_ , not do the actual work. I'm still thinking about how this would work in real life (20 devices all hanging of the I2C bus, or RX/TX pins?).

@@RalphBacon Well, for low symbol rate per second/minute I²C might do a great job. But let's guess, we have a little robot, that uses ultra-sonic as well as LIDAR for creating a 3d map of the surrounding environment. While one controller does the LIDAR and processes the scan data into a 3D cloud of points, the second controller does so for ultra sonic reflections. Now the problem is, that the processed data set (filtered sensor data) of 3D spatial data certainly come at a symbol rate per second/minute for which I²C is foreseeable by far to slow to fit the purpose. But of course there are alternatives to use. One could use SPI at up to 10 mbit/s (point-to-point), in reality perhaps more like up to 5mbit/s on pcb at short distance, or an on-PCB field bus system like UART via RS485, using a time division protocol, where all controllers are granted a time slices for transmitting data in a round robin fashion. This UART/RS-485 stuff can work quite well at pretty high speeds at short distances. 10 mbit/s are not completly unrealistic to achieve with a UART, depending on the controller being used. Something like 1 mbit/s might be a pretty common scenario for RS485 applications at short range like for an on-board design. Lets assume that there is an application in which one microcontroller might be used to aggregate/integrate data that was collected by a number of microcontrollers optimized for gathering sensoric data, and uses that data aggregates for decision making, displaying, steering etc. at e.g. some sort of meta-level, like one would expect for a rover on Mars (just to give it some exemplary purpose). In such case the choice of communication (field bus, point to point communication, etc.) depends mainly on the expected data rate for the transmission, as well as the number of controllers involved. All of such communication between controllers is a very interesting field, ranging from production automation, robotics, airframes (planes), satelites, complex measuring equipment, etc. pp. that in reality make use of a great number and variation of field busses and/or p2p communication protocols. A good start could of course make I²C at low data rates (100kbit/s or 400kbit/s), since it is simple to use and comes with little to almost no extra cost. Another option for higher speed communication might be a UART used for point to point communication without or little extra cost, or between many controllers using some RS485 driver ic (some extra cost and space on pcb) with speeds of up to around 1mbit/s or along with the more expensive driver chips up to 5 mbit/s or even 10 mbit/s that could e.g. be used along with a time division scheme communication protocol (pretty much like ARCNET in the 80th and 90th or BACnet, that is still widely used). My advice would be, give it a try and play with such ideas for the new expirience that such many-controller-desings do offer, while this is can become a door opener for complex projects as well as a lot of fun when having controllers communicating about stuff ... . For I²C you wouldn't need any extra parts, aprat from the pull-up resistors for SCL and SDA. For RS485 you might look for some driver IC like MAX485 and similar, or one of the ready made modules for RS485 that are available at aliexpress/banggood for about 1-2$ (power hungry, but cheap). The RS485 driver chips that offer high speed and little power consumption at the same time, do come at a certain price tag. But for experimenting/playing around, the cheap and ready-to-use modules are perfect in my opinion. Anyways certainly a topic worth playing around... Best wishes from Berlin!

@@RalphBacon By the way...using both, some I²C to connect all controllers (e.g. 20) for general communication and low data rate exchange & commands (like "start taking samples", "stop taking samples, "start motor drive", "power down", "sleep", etc.), as well as some RS485(USART) for high speed data sample exchange within the same project is quite common use in complex functionality setups. For higher data rate sample taking and processing (ground penetrating radar, LIDAR, picture processing, ultrasonic range finding etc.) using something like a esp32 / stm32 / pic32mx795 / pic32mz2018 and the like. For lower data rate processing, like driving a robot around, energy management, solar panel orientation adjustment, something like an arduino, just to give an example. So multiple controllers within one and the same project can and mostly are a mix of different controller types, according to certain requirements and their capabilities.

Indeed, Ralph, the correct answer is always UART0 unless you have used the other set of RX / TX pins (which I hadn't in the video hence why I chose UART0). I should have been clearer on that, my bad. But I'm delighted you had the Eureka moment and got it all working, great stuff. 👍

@@RalphBacon The finished is shown on my Instagram: instagram.com/rwl7532/ where I show all my e-successes. (and some photography) Why aren't you on Instragram?

Just saw it, Ralph. Yes, I'm on Instagram inasmuch that I have an account, Twitter too, but I have no time to answer stuff on social media other than KZfaq!

You will have to believe me, Gabriel, when I say I have looked long and hard for the changes I made, but without success. If we assume that the original Wire.h library (I2C) uses pins A4 and A5 (aka GPIO 18, 19) then I can only assume I "hacked" a version of that library to use the pins required for the second I2C available on the PB version. But at this stage I'm afraid I must admit defeat and say I can't find the changes.

Soldering tiny resistors or caps using a standard iron can be done, but I used a hot air gun (Soldering Rework Station) that I showed a few videos ago. Mine's the Yihua 959D and seems to work very well for the £50 it cost me. But I might go through that in the video, keep tuned.

Send me that email, Daniel, one of those boards has your name on it (if you're quick enough)!

Thanks, my Friend. Have a nice day !! Oh! Just got your mail .. LOL. That is telepathy ! Take care !

Thanks, Steven, I particularly liked the "as always" bit! Good to hear from you.

Yes, I'm still campaigning for a 30-hour day; I know exactly what you mean! Thanks for your kind words, always good to hear from you.

You can call it that if you want, Scott, but I'd advise doing it very quietly! Yes, MiniCore is worth it anyway, whether you upgrade or not.

Stackable pin headers fit better but IMHO make the board look quite ugly and don't allow shields to be plugged into the Arduino. You can get ROUND pin headers which probably work better. But even the square ones _do_ fit but something you want to fit just once and leave there.

The 328PB chip is very nearly pin compatible with the SMD 328P, Neagoe. You just should not connect pins 3 and 6 (connected to VCC/GND on the 328P version) as these provide an extra GPIO on each pin and it's not particularly "safe" to leave them connected directly to VCC or GND (think: short circuit). And I could have placed that chip elsewhere I suppose although routing all 32 tracks was a bit of challenge as it was. I would love to create the PCB with the tiny VQFP chip that I showed with the chip sitting between the pins - but soldering it would be pretty much impossible (for me, at least) so maybe I'll get a PCB fab house to do it for me!

@@RalphBacon Hm, actually I was thinking about your challenge with the tiny chip and crossed my mind something I've done the years ago, using a 3D printer to create a thin solder mask for putting a precise solder quantity. Then I've heated all up by using 2 heat guns 180 degrees one from the other and rotate them. If you would like to try I could make the solder mask for you, @ zero cost.

It's beyond my skills levels, Neagoe, trying to solder that tiny VQFP chip, solder mask or not! But thanks for the offer, very kind of you. Unfortunately, LCSC.com don't stock that tiny chip either, so if I were to get it done it would have to be another PCB house. Luckily I know of one with which I am involved. We shall see.

I used to be like you, Jerry, with poor eyesight (very short-sighted) but with the advantage that I could focus on the end of my nose. So soldering small components was never an issue... until my eyes decided they did not want to play any more and now I just have poor eyesight! However, with +4.0 glasses I can see _real_ close again so soldering SMD chips is OK. Once I get my cataract swapped for a decent lens I should have eyes like an elderly hawk! It's nice to hear your project worked out well like that. Yes, we can always do it better next time, maybe, but it's easy to have 20/20 hindsight! Great to hear from you Jerry, thanks for posting.

No, no, no panic! I didn't say the DIP chip (328P-PU) was ending production, but if you go onto the Microchip site they say "In Production, Consider: ATmega328PB" and you can still get one for $1.69, but they are generally available. Phew!

As it happens I do have a 328PB Xplained board but I never ended up using it. I will add your suggestion to my list and see what happens. Of course, the Arduino PRO IDE may overtake me and provide what we all need regarding debugging long before that happens...

@@RalphBacon Thanks. The atmel studio had an option to import existing arduino sketches and allow debugging, I never managed to get this working.

Of course, and I did a series of videos about it, learned a load regarding fake STM32 chips that don't work with the new bootloader but, ultimately, for beginners who are familiar with the Arduino UNO this could be a worthwhile upgrade. If they can solder SMD chips!

That's the one thing I didn't mention because I've never run out of timers, Bernd. But now you mention it, I should have said something. My bad. But the documentation is there for people to read!

I'm sure I have some of those turned pins somewhere, I shall see if they work any better. Thanks for the nudge.

Glad you liked it, thanks for posting!

I'm sure that's a great choice too, but I have to say the OPEN SMART shield I showed does everything I need including allowing me to plug in an ICSP cable to program _other_ boards too!

@@RalphBacon How is that gonna work is If have a atMega328PB on my personally designed board ?

The standard pin headers do fit (very snugly) into the IC socket, Steven, but as I mentioned it's not something you want to keep taking out. Stackable headers work better but the board looks very ugly with them, I think (but still does the job of course). I've seen round header pins (got some somewhere now you mention it) I should have used those, I suppose.

@@RalphBacon That is a sweet PCB converter you had made. Will the Chinese make a few more sell them on Ali? An LGT 32mhz Uno is easy for you to make, now.

Well, I appreciate the sentiment but hadly brilliant, Andrew! (But don't edit that post, leave it as is!!!) But it does allow Arduinites to experiment with the PB chip and then decide whether or not to create a custom PCB with that chip _in situ_ as it were.

It's a step up for UNO users, that's for sure, Lee. I guess you are using more powerful MCUs these days?

I've changed my mind on the UNO recently. Yes, whilst I love the more powerful devices, STM32, ESP8266, ESP32, LGT8, et al, for beginners I don't think you can beat the UNO. There is a LOT you can learn using it. This board takes it up a notch whilst being 100% backward compatible.

In the description in my link to the GitHuB page, I think. Email me if not, and I will dig it out.

Indeed, and it's what commercial outfits do, of course. Prototype using a Nano or Arduino then transfer the important bits to your own PCB and get someone else to do the dirty work of actually making it! That way, you can spend more time on getting the design and PCB right instead of building anything.

Yes, Harrzack, and I showed those in a previous video but they are quite expensive for what they are. You can make this for $3. And have fun doing it!

You think that chip is small, Ed? Try the VQFP version I showed briefly in my video! No way could I solder that (I don't think so, it has no exposed pins). Glad you got the board, take care when soldering the chip, make sure Pin 1 is correctly positioned (see the dot) and just tack a corner, correcting any misalignment and then tack another corner to hold it square and you're good to go. Plenty of flux, I mean PLENTY! It will all wash off afterwards with Isopropyl alcohol. If I can do it, anyone can!

@@RalphBacon got to get myself some decent flux, the last flux I ordered from china I think was just vaseline

There are two libraries included with MiniCore, Gary, Wire.h and Wire1.h, and it's the latter we use to use the 2nd channel. You can use both simultaneously, of course.

Thanks Ralph. Really appreciate all the work you do and the great presentations of fun information...Thanks again.

​@@RalphBacon Just what I was looking for! I have a project where I selected a Pololu 328PB module to use all it's analog inputs and would use the 2nd i2c for a LCD. Later I noticed that there was no library available for the 2nd i2c. Even the Pololu WEB site state that. I will look MiniCore to see if my project will be feasible. Thanks you for the note and Gary Webster for making the question!!!

Because the two aluminium caps are there and there was a definite risk of shorting. I could have made it wider but it looked ugly. I had to do something so this was it. It actually works OK in real life.

I'm not _totally_ sure what you mean here! the PCB plugs directly into the IC socket as you saw. Shields even fit over the top if you use right angle pin headers for A6/A7 and the I2C pins (or omit them). Can you clarify what won't fit and where?

​ Ralph S Bacon Thanks for your reply. You are right, my comment wasn't very clear. From what I can see, the "PB" PCB exceeds (slightly) the boundarys of the genuine Arduino UNO at the right hand side. This isn't a big deal and that's simply what I had noticed. I do understand that placing the chip in a left hand desing is compromised by the elctrolytic capacitors on the UNO. Nevertheless, I just thought that there might be enough space "inside" the boundarys of the UNO. Just thinking on the guys who simply want to replace the obsolete 328P by the PB version.

@@konohh I understand now. Another viewer suggested making the board wider (not longer, as I have done) so it was contained within the Arduino UNO footprint. My PCB doesn't overhang that much but would prevent it fitting a std Arduino UNO case, I guess. I wish I could solder that VQFP chip then it would be exactly the same size as the DIP chip!

Glad you liked it Muhammad, could be useful for some.

If you can make the tracks you mention bigger, and still have a minimum of 5 mil clearance that's great, Jens. As these tracks only supply the µC I don't think it essential but if you can do it, then do it!

@@RalphBacon I make it so big as possible. Then I make a error check. And I link VCC to AVCC. Both are 5V. I link a short track from C1 to pin 18 of the IC (AVCC) with a via.

Thank you, Karanbir, very nice of you to say so!

You're most welcome, Cole, glad you like it.

It doesn't look like it (I'm assuming you're looking at the MiniCore). Here's the complete list that MCUdude (Hans) supports: github.com/MCUdude/MCUdude_corefiles

Indeed, Robert, there is. Go to my GitHub and download the Eagle files project backup, and unzip. Read the readme inside and you will see how to import them into EasyEDA. After that you can amend them to your heart's content or just order them from JLCPCB. I hope this helps.

That file is NOT the Gerber zip, CaroMan. It is the EasyEDA project backup which you must unzip and import into EasyEDA (the readme in the zip tells you how). Then you can order DIRECTLY from JLCPCB without generating Gerber files (from within EasyEDA), or you can generate the Gerber files anyway and submit in the usual way.

@@RalphBacon Thanks for the quick answer! Reading RedMe files has never been my strength. In this case, it would certainly have been helpful. Thanks to your answer the order went quite fast.

I've copied the EasyEDA folder to my GitHub with a Readme that tells you how to import it, Paul. It cunningly called "DIP to LQFP32 UNO - BackupProjects_ralphbacon_20191029.zip" just to confuse you!

100-pin SMD soldering? Ouch. Tricky. But probably do-able! I've not used the 324PB at all. There are so many MCUs out there it must be possible to find one that suits our needs. You seem to be doing a good job researching which ones are good for you. Keep going.

Sorry, I'm not going to answer all those questions, Dave, as there is plenty of information out there on the Internet. But I'll answer question 6 for you right now: NO. I've looked at this topic many times and to get a realistic amount of power into, say, 12v lead acid batteries (ie ones with a decent capacity) is going to be expensive. I know that Julian Ilett has done a lot of work on this subject and you should see the huge solar panels and batteries n his garden.

@@RalphBacon Phew, thanks for that reassurance, Ralph! I should hate it if you too disappeared down that solar panel rabbithole thing! Bores me to tears that so many ruin their channel with so much of that stuff. Don't get me wrong...i am all for solar energy capture; it's just that the storage science just isn't there yet.

I wanted to do that, Norm, but those aluminium can caps are in the way. The pins would foul and, of course, I have stuff under the chip (the decoupling caps). Others have suggested making it _wider_ rather than longer but I had this bee in my bonnet that longer and thinner looked better.

Thanks Brian, nice to hear from you.

If you find a dev board (other than the official one I showed) let me know, Ristormatti!

@@RalphBacon www.pololu.com/category/239/a-star-328pb-micro for example.

@@RalphBacon www.bq.com/en/zum-core-2-0

@@TheKetsa Yes, I've already covered that board, but it is not particularly cheap (for what it is). I want to now desolder a 328P chip from a Nano and resolder a 328PB (except pin 3 & 6)!

@@damianpinnington5477 35 darn euros for an Uno+...? Are they outta their minds? I would be very curious to see their sales figures!

Happy Diwali

Merry Deepavali!

Ah yes, Yogesh, we've been having the firework celebrations here too. Wishing you a Diwali that brings happiness, prosperity and joy to you and all your family.

@@RalphBacon thank you sir

@@martinharnevie thank you sir

Yes, that chip is freely available, probably best to get a couple in case you let out the magic smoke! Guess what? You can buy one for LESS than the price of a cup of coffee.

I'm using the Eclipse (Sloeber): eclipse.baeyens.it/

Oh, I've just replied, glad you found them! Read the readme file that tells you how to import them.

I have more than one sponsor, Andy!

@@RalphBacon I was just wondering what PCBWay would think about you getting JLCPCB to make these boards. Won't they get a bit narkey?

@@pintokitkat Well, they accepted my argument that I did not want to be tied to _any_ one supplier. This was many months ago. They are both excellent PCB fabs.

Gotta admit....i often rarely do remove it. Because as soon as i do i am sure to mess it up somehow!...lol.

No I haven't but it makes zero difference to the contrast on camera, trust me!

That was my OCD. No worries, digits were visible all the time. Oh, And thank you for your videos, I learn a lot.

I had to practice that sound effect for hours, you know.

Euro? Have you not heard of BREXIT? We (apparently, but not me) want to distance ourselves from the € not encourage it! In all seriousness, I use the $ because all websites use it (yes, I can change it but then the Americans get confused). And the Euro is pretty similar to the $ USD is that not so? I'll take this on board though and try and include € pricing in the future too.

@@RalphBacon Thanks. You have used it in the past. Another tick in the 'positives' column for your channel.

I'm glad you got it working (eventually) Hannu. I didn't get any errors. I just put the PCB with the new chip into my programming ZIF socket, chose the correct board using MiniCore and it "just worked". No changes to "Arduino as ISP" sketch were required. I hope you have many hours of fun with the extra facilities this chip gives you.

Yes, you can have different speeds for the UARTS, I just didn't demo that, oops. I'll put that link to RS in my GitHub too, thanks for nudge.

Not at all, you need to be on a PC or MAC (basically desktop version of KZfaq). Go to my channel and then the ABOUT tab. There you will find that elusive button. Here's a link that will help, then click the View Email Address: kzfaq.info/love/8Ob-HnnmhlgSv5Vs_i32TQabout

Sorry Ralph, I didn't get notified of your reply. Yeah, I found the right place but in Firefox (70.0.1) the whole 'Details' section is just blank....nothing....just the word 'Details' then your Location underneath. I tried on several PC's, even virtual ones, Firefox 'safe mode' (all extensions disabled), I even risked trying 'Chrome' but alas no change.....the 'Details' section is just non-existant. Strange thing is... 'Chrome' (78.0.3904.97 ) is now working and I can _NOW_ see the elusive button but Firefox continues to hide that info. I cant figure out if it is just me or Firefox in general, and to be honest if it wasn't for your video I would not even of been aware that any such button should even be there....KZfaq eh? Anyway, sorry again for being the thorn in your side and the tardiness of my reply.

I guess Banggood are really hoping to sell more of these units then! I found it very useful and it's one of those tools that once you have you wonder how you managed without.

If you don't drink coffee then you will have even more cash for these ultra-exciting products that I keep demoing, Kent, makes sense, right? I'd love it if the Chinese were to create a board with the 328PB - given that it's very nearly pin compatible and cheaper than the 328P nowadays I am wondering why they haven't.

Not in my experience, Ted! Even though I have told PuTTY never to close the window, once it loses the connection (eg you unplug the Arduino) it comes up with an error and then promptly closes the window! I don't understand the logic but there it is. But CoolTerm works fine for me, far better than PuTTY anyway, even if I discount the odd window-closing behaviour!