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Project Notes

#266 TheCuttle

A bare-bones Arduino-compatible kit from The Boldport Club (Project #6).

Build

Notes

The Cuttle is a bare-bones Arduino-compatible soldering kit. It was first designed as commissioned work for Embecosm, who made it open source hardware.

What’s different about this board? It is by far the most beautiful Arduino-like board I own!

Note: I’ve also created a Fritzing part for the Cuttle module, see FritzingParts/TheCuttle.

Parts & Unboxing

kit_packaging

kit_unboxing

Ref Item Qty
S1 Tactile switch, TE Connectivity, FSM4JRT 1
U1 ATMega328-PU microcontroller, Atmel, ATMEGA328-PU 1
C1,2,3,4 0.1µF ceramic capacitor, Multicomp, MC0805Y104M500A2.54MM 4
C5,6 22pF ceramic capacitor, Multicomp, MC0805N220J500A2.54MM 2
C7 10µF electrolytic capacitor, Multicomp, MCMR35V106M4X7 1
R1 10KΩ resistor, Multicomp, MCF 0.25W 10K 1
D1 Small signal diode, Multicomp, 1N4148 1
Q1 16MHz crystal, TXC, 9B-16.000MAAJ-B 1
- DIP socket, TruConnect, DS1009-28 AT1NS 1
- 18 contacts header, Multicomp, MC34737 2
- 6 contacts right-angle header, Multicomp, MC34751 1

Programming the Cuttle

I’m using a cheap CH340G-based USB to UART adapter. With the correct drivers installed, it shows up in the Arduino IDE and programming works like any other Arduino board.

TheCuttle_programming

See the ATmega168/328-Arduino Pin Mapping for details on mapping the ATmega328 pins to Arduino port names.

Cuttle Pin ATmega328 Pin Arduino Pin
DTR* - -
PC6 PCINT14, RESET RESET
PD0 PCINT16/RXD D0, RX
PD1 PCINT17/TXD D1, TX
PD2 PCINT18/INT0 D2
PD3 PCINT19/OC2B/INT1 D3~
PD4 PCINT20/XCK/T0 D4
VCC VCC VCC
GND GND GND
PB6 PCINT6/XTAL1/TOCS1 (crystal)
PB7 PCINT7/XTAL2/TOCS2 (crystal)
PD5 PCINT21/OC0B/T1 D5~
PD6 PCINT22/OC0A/AIN0 D6~
PD7 PCINT23/AIN1 D7
PB0 PCINT0/CLKO/ICP1 D8
VCC* VCC VCC
GND* GND GND
PB1 PCINT1/OC1A D9~
PB2 PCINT2/OC1B/SS D10~
PB3 PCINT3/OC2A/MOSI D11~
PB4 PCINT4/MISO D12
PB5 PCINT5/SCK D13
AVCC AVCC VCC
AREF AREF AREF
GND GND GND
PC0 PCINT8/ADC0 A0
PC1 PCINT9/ADC1 A1
PC2 PCINT10/ADC2 A2
PC3 PCINT11/ADC3 A3
PC4 PCINT12/ADC4/SDA A4
PC5 PCINT13/ADC5/SCL A5
CTS* - -

The Cuttle pins marked * are extra pins on the PCB that don’t directly correspond to an ATmega328 pin or are duplicates.

Construction

Breadboard

Schematic

Finished assembly:

kit_upper

Underside; I haven’t cleaned it after soldering:

kit_lower

Nice “Boldport” solder domes! A few flux splatters I haven’t cleaned up. I also made a bit of a mistake with the pins - I pushed them flush from the top but forgot to ensure they were fully aligned.

kit_lower_points

Credits and References

About LEAP#266 BoldportPCB DesignATmegaATmelArduino
Project Source on GitHub Project Gallery Return to the LEAP Catalog

This page is a web-friendly rendering of my project notes shared in the LEAP GitHub repository.

LEAP is just my personal collection of projects, usually involving an Arduino or other microprocessor in one way or another. Some are full-blown projects, while many are trivial breadboard experiments, intended to learn and explore something interesting (IMHO!).

The projects are usually inspired by things found wild on the net, or ideas from the sources such as:

Feel free to borrow liberally, and if you spot any issues do let me know. See the individual projects for credits where due. There are even now a few projects contributed by others - send your own over in a pull request if you would also like to add to this collection.