While newer Arduinos and Arduino compatibles (including the Hackaday.io Trinket Pro. Superliminal Advertising!) either have a chip capable of USB or rely on a V-USB implementation, the old fogies o… ...

Keep an eye on the pins MISO, MOSI, SCK, Power, Ground, and Reset. These are the pins you’ll need to flash the firmware on your chip. As stated, the easy way to upload the bootloader involves using ...

For more information on the new Arduino Prototyping Set and Bootloader Shield jump over to the Kickstarter website for details and to make a pledge from $18.

He builds a simple dead bug Arduino (which he calls an Audioino) using a handful of resistors, a pair of caps, an LED, a reset switch, and most importantly – an audio jack.

At about $30, the Arduino isn't an expensive device, but if you want to make your own, simpler version, electronics blog Hardware Startup shows off how to build an Arduino clone for less than $5.