Using the Arduino Pro Mini & FTDI

Today we will work with the Arduino Pro Mini, a small yet powerful Arduino board. We will also build a simple battery-powered robot arm controller.

The Arduino Pro Mini is proof that good things do indeed come in small packages. It uses the ATMega328 processor chip, giving it all of the power of the Arduino Uno in a tiny package. It even has a couple of extra analog to digital converters and is available in both 3.3-volt and 5-volt models.

Although it has been discontinued from the official Arduino store it is an open source design (originally built by SparkFun) and is readily available.

One thing that the Pro Mini is lacking, however, is a USB port for programming and debugging.

To resolve this you will need to use an FTDI adapter, a small board that allows you to connect a USB port to your Arduino Pro Mini. It’s a simple board to use but be careful of the hookup, as some Pro Minis (and some FTDI boards as well) have their connections reversed.

I’ll show you how to hook up the FTDI board to both a 3.3-volt and 5-volt Pro Mini and how to program it using the Arduino IDE.

We will also build a battery-powered robot arm controller for the MeArm, it can be extended to work with any servo motor based robotic arm. While I will be the first to admit that the design lacks a lot of features it does a good job of illustrating how to work with the 3.3-volt Pro Mini.

Here are the contents of today's video:

00:00 - Introduction
02:35 - Pro Mini Intro
07:26 - Using the FTDI Adapter
11:16 - Programming the Pro Mini
18:48 - Robot Arm Controller

I also want to thank everyone who has subscribed to the YouTube channel, we are now over 80,000 strong! If you haven’t subscribed yet please do, I’d love to have you as a subscriber.

Now go and build something small and wonderful with the Arduino Pro Mini!

[jhoserob]

It is so nice to find a Youtube channel where the moderator has a very nice voice and good audio, tidy workplace and clear way to explain everything my thumbs up and the bell is active.

[ericwright]

I have two FTDI boards that are 10+ years old. Just bought a few Pro Mini boards, Tx, Rx, Vcc and GND and the Pro Mini programmed on my first try. Happily shocked.
Thanks for the video.

[turbofan]

Great video as always Bill.
When you map the servo movement to the mechanical borders of the arm will give a smoother movement. e.g. the claw servo need only 45 degrees to close and open the claw. (by the looks of it at 25:18) mapping 0 to 1023 to say 0 to 45 results in a reduced range of the servo with the full wipe of the poti and therefore a more precise control of the claw.

[iandawkins]

So clear, so concise. New to Arduino, just got into it about a six weeks ago but your videos have helped and taught me so much.Please keep them up as they are so inspiring, can't thank you enough.

[sbmuthuraman]

Thank you so much for your clear explanation as always.. Actually the TX and RX pin on both my Arduino Pro Mini and FTDI are swapped in comparison to what you had shown in this video 9:37. But this was fine as the pins are swapped on both the boards.

[freeelectron]

Wow! That it THE MOST tidy and well organised workshop I have ever seen!

[VanDerLaars]

Jesus!!! You ARE fantastic. I'm a hobbyist and I do a whole bunch of stuff but it's not always I'm 100% sure of what I'm doing. I try to read and while testing stuff I managed to burn some boards and so on but you ALWAYS manage to answer all my questions with your videos!!!
I know you said you aren't gonna sell anything but you could have some affiliate links. I'd gladly buy stuff cause well, I buy it at eBay anyway.

[raymondheath]

Very helpful. Years ago I had problems trying to program a mini or a micro, but then I was using WIN 7. I've been solid Linux on all of my desktops and laptops and both servers for 6 years now and everything just works. I decided to break out all the old Arduino stuff and try it out and it worked first time just like you showed. Thanks!

[MusicalBox]

Couldn't be happier :) I ordered a couple of Pro Minis this morning and there was one or two things I was not sure about them. You answered my questions before I could even start to search for answers :)

[Blackmage]

Very clean and straight forward as always. Very helpful and much appreciated! Thank you!

[Mostly.Harmless.]

Thank You. I am a beginner and I was easily able to get the Pro Mini to work with the help of this video :)

[ابراهيممحمدحسينالشرابي]

Thanks a lot, you are really grear at explaining all about electronics
I've downloaded all your playlist about arduino on my PC and watch them regularly and take them as reference when i need them,
Thanks again for the great job ❤️❤️❤️

[transfer]

Sorry for the late comment. Great videos of yours. You are not bad at controlling the arm, the delay is bad. 400ms is too much. Try with 20. With such a big delay (400ms) your feedback is too slow to be able to control is smooth. Great work!

[tinkmarshino]

oh Bill, you live an adventurous life, your not authorized but you'll jump right in and take your chances! Oh you wild man! Just throw caution to the wind.. that's why we love you my brother! Man this was something to watch on my new 70" smarter than me tv...I feel like a renaissance man! I think this would be a fun project to do as long as the sketch is not on github.. It is a great place for sure.. But it is just to confusing for this old man.. I have been looking for some young fellow in my area to help walk me through github so I understand how to get what I need and get it into my IDE correctly.. you know getting old is not for the weak.. Well thanks again for the share.. and carry on you rebel you...

[captainpugwash]

Been waiting all afternoon for my weekly dose of DroneBot!

[kspnasa]

I love this tutorial! Great calm voice without any music. You explain very well!! thank you

[quintinkruger]

Hats off to you, your videos are the best ! You go through everything there is about a topic and you explain it so well. Thank you !! Another great video.

[josealphonso]

Very well explained. Much better than reading books.

[mickeyfilmer]

So easy to understand and follow- even for a geriatric like me!!

[JohnClulow]

Excellent intro to the pro mini !! Thank you !!