Although it's easy and popular to make a final project based on an Arduino or compatible board, it's great to see projects that move from the board to their own PCB and enclosure - and a fine example of this is the "Pong Clock" by Rob Parrett. As the name indicates, it's a clock that uses an inexpensive graphic LCD to display time and a demonstration of the classic video game. Rob has transferred the prototype circuit over to manufactured PCBs, and also shares with us the ups and downs of hardware design. However at the end he's created a great product, and also shared all the required design files so you can make your own.
Visit Rob's website for the design and construction narrative. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
If you're wanting to make your own off-board Arduino projects - we've got you covered with our new ATmega328P MCUs with Arduino Uno bootloader:
This is the same Atmel AVR ATmega328P microcontroller used in the official Arduino Uno, as well as our Eleven, EtherTen, USBDroid, and other boards. Perfect for building your own Arduino-compatible project directly on a breadboard or on a custom PCB, or for replacing the MCU in an existing board. Comes with the Arduino Uno bootloader pre-installed. Better still, it even has a special label stuck on top with details of the pinout, so you don't even need to look up the datasheet when connecting it up in your project! For more information and to order, click here!
