Development Board for ATmega8 Microcontroller

With only few common components, the design of this board is simple while having 3 through-hole connectors dedicated for each MCU pin as the board is used as a fast kick in for MCU starters.

The size of the board is small with all pins brought out. Other parts include 6-pin standard ICSP header, standard reset button, standard 2.1mm DC jack regulator running on 7V-15V power, and external power entry that is selectable with a jumper. The 1N4001 diode provides protection against the use of incorrect wall adapter. A different reference for the analog section can be used since there are no connection between the power and ground sections.

The power goes in from the 7805 power supply with capacitors available to filter the power from spikes as the 7805 regulates the 7-15V to 5V. To make sure that the pin is going to stay at 1 unless the button is pressed or the programmer connects the pin to 0, a pull-up resistor is also connected to the reset pin. In order to be able to solder all the components easily, the holes in the board are bigger than they have to be.

Click here to see the rest of the project.