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ATTiny85 DigiSpark Arduino
The ATTiny85 is on a very small board, measuring just 20 x 18mm. It uses the same chip as many other Arduino projects. It does all the same things as the other Arduino boards, it's just a lot smaller.
The ATTiny85 is a programmable chip called a microcontroller with various inputs and outputs. It has a CPU, RAM, and flash storage all built into the tiny chip.
The inputs can be used to read things like voltage or switches and the outputs can be used to drive external components such as LEDs or a speaker.
The ATTiny85 is fully programmable which means you can write you own program (or "Sketch") to tell the chip what to do. It uses the same Arduino application to write code and download it to the board.
| ATTiny85 DigiSpark Arduino Microcontroller | |
|---|---|
| Microcontroller | ATMEL - ATTiny85 |
| Operating Voltage | 5 volts |
| Digital I/O Pins | 6 |
| Analog Input Pins | 4 |
| Max DC Current per I/O Pin | 20 mA |
| Flash Memory | 8 kB |
| CPU Speed | 16.5 MHz |
What are all those pins for
The ATTiny85 Digispark provides a number of Digital and Analog pins.
Digital pins are either ON or OFF - nothing in between. ON=5V, OFF=0V. Likewise it can read a pin's connected input as either ON or OFF. P0, P1, P2 and P5 are connected to LEDs. P3 and P4 are connected to the USB for programming and may not be used in this project.
Analog pins on the other hand can output a variable voltage value. Likewise, they can read any input voltage connected up to them. They aren't limited to just ON or OFF logic levels like the digital pins. The analog inputs on P2 through P5 are unused in this project.
Generally if you want to turn something on or off, you use digital. If you want to do something more complicated like output or read a variable changing voltage you would use an analog pin.
What's the USB connector for
The USB port is used to upload Arduino programs (or "Sketches") to the chip. Once the Arduino software and drivers are installed on your computer you can connect the board via the USB port and upload programs to it from your computer using the freely downloadable Arduino software.
You must disconnect the 9V battery before connecting the USB port to your computer.
I Want to Hook It Up To My Computer
The Arduino community website has an excellent guide. There are guides for Web, Windows, Apple and Linux. Click here for a tutorial.
You will also need to add the ATTiny85 Digispark board. See here for details.
Need More Help
Arduino has a massive community behind it on the internet. If you get stuck you won't be for long. You're sure to find an answer via a quick search on the internet.
The official Arduino community website can be found at www.arduino.cc.
This project conceived and designed by Malcolm Faed, the nitty gritty details are on his blog. Start at the original post and work forwards from there.