I often use an Arduino Nano for middle till small project. I do not use the Arduino IDE for programming. Instead I do program the controller direct with Atmel Studio. The Atmega8 has less features but is usable for some things and is cheaper. It was the main reason to make this breakout board. Compared to an Ardunio Nano there are some additional benefits of this board:

  • The Arduino Boards do have this stupid Arduino Pin labelling. On my board the pins are labelled after the IO Ports of the microcontroller.
  • This board have a easy to change crystal. You could also use a socket for the crystal (like this one)
  • My board do have pins for PB6 and PB7. These are used also for the oscillator. But if using an internal clock source they can be used as additional IOs