Hey,

I recently bought an Arduino uno starter kit and by now I have completed most of the projects in the book. However I made a little project of my own. I have a rgb led strip on my desk and programmed my Arduino uno to control the rgb light by sending a pwm signal to three mosfets, one for each color so I can sent commands through my computer to change the lights.

How ever now I want to move on to my next project, but I want to keep the old. Now I was wondering what I should pick, buy a new Arduino uno and use it for the project and keep to old one to create new projects. Or buy an Arduino nano and use that instead. However I could also buy an Arduino mini and an Arduino serial 2 usb port. What should I choose ? Does the Arduino mini with the serial 2 usb port allow for me to sent values to it and change the lights that way ?

A complete other way would be to buy an ATmega328 and a serial 2 usb from Arduino and do it that way but I wouldn't know how. Can you straight up use it this way or do you need to add extra circuitry to the ATmega328 in order to use my program ?

the project requires 3 pwm outputs and if possible (not necessary) a few inputs for maybe something like manual on/off switch, brightness, or a preset mode.

Thanks in advance!
Jake

 

ATmega328 chip will need extra circuitry.
Arduino website actually provides schematic of their board. Go to Uno section and look at the schematic of Uno. You will see ATmega328, and it will have a crystal, some capacitors and some resistors connected to it.

You can also download ATmel datasheet for 328 and it will have the minimal circuit that you need for 328. Then google and see what people have built when they wanted just the 328 to work. The reason I say this is because Uno has a bunch of other stuff that a minimalist don't really need. That is one reason Uno has been so successful, it has a bunch of stuff that appeal to a bunch of different people. But! If you don't need all that stuff, when all you need are some specific features, then you better of with something that fit your specific needs, building your own circuit on breadboard might be exactly what you need.