Arduino Pro-Mini Programmer Board Layout

Layout For The Pro-Mini Programmer Shield

The layout for the UNO Pro-Mini shield is shown above. It isn't difficult to wire up if you just want to do a quick programming job but it isn't nearly as convenient as building it onto a shield.

The white circles are cuts in the copper strip that can be made by hand with a 6mm drill bit. The blue lines are links made with 22 SWG tinned copper wire and the wiggly line is an insulated wire link.

It has been recommended elsewhere to include an electrolytic capacitor between reset and ground. I included one on my board but the programmer didn't work at all so I removed it. You may find that some of the copper cuts on the layout aren't needed as a result of removing the capacitor.

What's on the shield?

The shield has a socket for plugging in a Pro-Mini, an ISP connector for using like a standard ISP and 3 status LEDs.

The ISP connector can be used to connect and program Arduino boards with onboard ISP connectors. The Pro-Mini board does not have an ISP connector but it can be plugged into the socket on the shield, programmed then returned to your target hardware.

The three LED indicators are:

• Heartbeat - Gently pulsates when the ArduinoISP sketch is running
• Error - Glows when an error is encounted
• Programming - Flashes while programming in progress

Using the layout

I found that exporting the layout to a pdf file at actual size allowed me to print it out and paste it onto my stripboard. The holes line up perfectly if you take care to get it in the correct position. Download the layout