Circuitmess MAKERbuino User manual

This is a printable version of the online MAKERbuino build guide from https://www.makerbuino.com/build/
Copyright CircuitMess © 2017. All rights reserved

CHAPTER #1
Adventure begins
Welcome!
Welcome to the MAKERbuino build guide. In these 6 chapters,
we’ll help you make a fully functional retro gaming device out of a
bunch of component’s you’ve received in your MAKERbuino
package.
Age group
Our estimation is that an 11-year-old kid should be able to
assemble the MAKERbuino with a tiny bit of help from an adult.
Therefore, the estimated age group is 11+.
Estimated build time: 4 hours 30 minutes. Build time varies and
depends on the skills of a user.
MAKERbuino was made with the purpose of bringing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) to electronics rookies in a fun
and interesting way.
Despite that, it is not the simplest kit out there and if you’ve never soldered before, you should think about doing some preparatory practice or
watching a couple of how-to-solder tutorials before you get down to business.
Skills That Will Ease the Process of Assembling
the MAKERbuino:
•Basic soldering experience (some preparatory experience)
•Ability to recognize the basic electronic components
If you do not have these skills, don’t worry – you’re a fast learner
and you’ll learn them in no-time.
What You’ll Learn With the MAKERbuino
MAKERbuino’s main goal is to educate and motivate you to learn something new or brush the skills you already have.
In the process of making the MAKERbuino you’ll learn:
•How to solder
•What are the basic electronic components and what is their function
•How can electronic components be connected and why
•What are microcontrollers and some basics of digital electronics
What will you learn if you decide to code your own software for the MAKERbuino and expand it’s hardware by connecting modules and
components as expansions:
•How to program a microcontroller in C/C++
•how a simple video game works
•how to interface a microcontroller with external peripherals

Basic resources
Here you can find MAKERbuino’s schematics which might help you if you’re already “into electronics”. If you do not know how to read
electronic schematics, don’t worry – you’ll learn!
You might also find this diagram useful:

What’s in the box?
You’ve got your MAKERbuino box, awesome! Thank you for supporting our project!
First of all, follow the list of included components and the text below and make sure that you have all the required components laid out on
your table and ready for soldering.
If something from the list is missing, please tell us via [e-mail]. Your MAKERbuino was hand packed with love in Croatia by us
(humans), and humans make mistakes, so everything’s possible.
List of components
Here you can find a table of your kit’s content.
The content of your kit may vary depending on the type you’ve bought (i.e. the kit with tools comes required tools and the
inventor’s pack has some extra inventor’s components included).
If you do not know what every single one of these components looks like, please don’t worry, we’ll cover every
component and its purpose in the following section after the table of content.
Label
Component Name
Quantity
NO LABEL
MAKERbuino PCB
1
NO LABEL
laser cut acrylic casing (consists of 3 pieces)
1
NO LABEL
M3 nylon screws
4
NO LABEL
M3 nylon nuts
4
NO LABEL
M3 6mm nylon hex distancer
8
NO LABEL
M2 nylon screws
2
NO LABEL
M2 nylon nuts
2
NO LABEL
M2 nylon spacers
2
NO LABEL
128MB Micro SD card + SD adapter
1
NO LABEL
SD socket
1
NO LABEL
pair of tiny RED and BLACK insulated wire for connecting the speaker
1
NO LABEL
8ohm 0.5W speaker - 28mm diameter
1
NO LABEL
Li-Po battery (650mAh, single cell - 3.7V) with male JST connector
1
NO LABEL
female JST battery connector (should already be mounted on the board)
1
NO LABEL
USB to RS232 adapter board (serial programmer)
1
NO LABEL
6-wire male to female cable for connecting the serial adapter board
U1
ATmega328P-PU microcontroller in PDIP package
1
NO LABEL
28 pin PDIP IC socket (for the ATmega328P)
1
LCD
Nokia 5110 LCD breakout board
1
NO LABEL
TP4056 micro USB Li-Po battery charger board
1
IC2
3.3V voltage regulator (MCP1702-3302E in TO-92 package)
1
T1
2n2222 general purpose NPN transistor (TO-92 package)
1
Q1
16MHz crystal
1
D1
1N4148 diode
1
SWITCH1,
SWITCH2
3 pin slide toggle switch
2
C1, C6
100nF ceramic capacitor
2
C2, C3
22pF ceramic capacitor
2
C4, C5, C7
100uF, 6.3V radial electrolytic capacitor
3
BTN
12x12x7.3mm pushbutton with button cap
7
JP1
standard double row 3x2 pin angle headers (male) - for SPI port
1
JP2
standard single row 6 pin angle headers (female) - for Serial port
1
JP3, JP4
KF2510-4P angle male connector - for i2c expansion ports
2
BREAKOUT
standard double row 5x2 pin angle headers (male) - for breakout port
1
TM1, TM2
1Kohm wheel trim potentiometer
2
R1
2.2Kohm resistor
1
R2, R3
10Kohm resistor
2
R4, R5
4.7kohm resistor
2
R6
100ohm resistor
1
X1
3.5mm headphone connector socket
1

Detailed description of the components
MAKERbuino’s PCB
PCB stands for printed circuit board.
Basically, this is a board with some copper traces and some other components like
protective paint and insulating material.
Copper layers on the board form traces that connect various MAKERbuino’s
electronic components (e.g. they connect the microcontroller to the screen) so that
they can work together as an electronic device.
This is an equivalent to your PC’s motherboard.
Laser Cut Acrylic
Casing
MAKERbuino’s circuitry is protected by a casing made out of laser cut plastic
(they’re made on a CNC laser cutting machine).
The casing consists of 3 pieces (see the picture). Your MAKERbuino’s casing is
crystal clear, we’ve painted the board red in the picture for better visibility.
One piece is used to protect the front (top) side of your MAKERbuino device and
the other two pieces protect MAKERbuino’s back.
Everything is stacked one on another using nuts, bolts and plastic spacers. This
style of casings is called “the sandwich design”.
Nuts, bolts, spacers
These basic mechanical components are needed for fixating the screen and the casing
to the circuit board.
M3 or M2 in the name of the screws indicates that their shaft’s diameter is 3 mm or 2
mm accordingly.
Li-Po battery
The rechargeable battery serves as MAKERbuino’s main power supply.
650mAh is more than enough for several hours of intense gaming and powering all
sorts of power-hungry expansion modules (like GPS receivers, motors, wifi modules,
etc.).
In case you didn’t know, “Li-Po” in the name of the battery indicates its structure and
what materials it uses to store electrical energy (Li-Po stands for Lithium Polymer).
It comes with the male JST power connector (the white connector at the end of the
red-black cable) that is then connected to the female JST connector soldered directly
to the board.
Electronics 101: the positive pole of any electrical power source (+) is usually
marked with a red wire. The negative pole of any electrical power source (-) is
usually marked with a black wire (in some cases green and brown color is used too).

Female JST connector
This connector is pre-soldered to MAKERbuino’s PCB and is used for connecting the Li-Po
battery to the circuit.
These white JST connectors are different from regular connectors in a way that they are anti-
reverse. In other words, you cannot swap polarity while connecting the battery. This is
important because reverse polarity can damage MAKERbuino’s charging circuit.
Important: the “sandwich”
Some of the above components (PCB, casing, some nuts and bolts, female battery
connector, Li-Po battery) might come packed in this sandwich-like form displayed on
the picture.
The reason for sending you those components like that is a regulation that doesn’t
allow us to send the Li-Po batteries via airmail if they are not embedded in some kind
of a “device”.
Before assembling the MAKERbuino, you will have to unscrew the sandwich and
release the PCB so that you can solder the components on it.
Electronics 101: never solder or modify a device that is “alive”. In other words,
always unplug the battery or some other power supply from the device’s PCB,
otherwise, you might make a short circuit with your soldering iron or screwdriver
and damage the electronic components.
RS232 Serial UART adapter & the corresponding 6 pin
cable
This red Serial adapter board is connected to MAKERbuino’s serial port (top left
black female angle connector).
It allows you to program your MAKERbuino directly from your computer and send
all sorts of useful data from the computer to the MAKERbuino and vice versa.
The board is connected to the MAKERbuino with a 6-pin rainbow female to male
cable.
You won’t need these components in the basic assembly so you can put theaside
for now.
SD card (microSD +
SD adapter)
The included SD card is used for storing games, programs and other useful data on it (game
graphics, music etc.).
Thanks to this card, you can load multiple games on your MAKERbuino.
It comes preloaded with lots of fun games downloaded from the games gallery so that you can
try it out right after you assemble it.
You might be wondering why the card’s capacity is only 128 MB. This is an 8-bit gameboy-like
gaming device and programs and games for it are approximately 30 kB. Thus,128 MB of space
will be more than sufficient for storing plenty of games, programs and useful info.
Speaker
This neat little speaker fits at the back side of the device, it has a special place in the back
of the casing.
It plays a crucial role in producing all the beeps, boops and crazy chiptunes you’ll
compose in your very own games.
Power: 0.5W, Impedance: 8Ω, Body dimensions: Ø28 x 4.7mm
Note: speaker’s photos are made by www.tme.eu

ATmega328p-pu microcontroller + 28-pin socket
The ATmega microcomputer (aka. microcontroller) is the brain of the device.
It has CPU, RAM memory, flash memory and almost all parts needed for executing programs and games
and doing all the smart work.
Basically, this is a computer in a chip. ATmega328’s astonishing 2kB of RAM and an 8-bit CPU at 16MHz of
frequency will bring out the nostalgia and provide you with the authentic old school retro experience.
It comes with a dedicated 28 pin socket for easy microcomputer replacement.
Nokia 5110 LCD screen
The screen module is an LCD screen on a breakout PCB.
LCD stands for liquid crystal display. This is a screen that is controlled by the main
ATmega microcomputer.
It’s a graphical display so you can manipulate every pixel’s color with a program in
the microcomputer.
The complete module is stacked on the main MAKERbuino PCB.
The screen has some magnificent features like high resolution (84x48 pixels
monochrome), adjustable LED backlight and great visibility in direct sunlight (the
display works in the same way as your calculator’s display – can be viewed without
the backlight if there is enough light in the room).
TP4056 Li-Po Battery Charger Board
This module is used for charging the rechargeable Li-Po battery.
It’s actually a separate PCB that is stacked and soldered on the main MAKERbuino board.
The most important part of the module is the TP4056 charger integrated circuit (the little
black chip on the board).
It’s regulating voltage and current of electricity inputted by the USB port and feeding it to the
Li-Po battery.
It has a micro USB port so that you charge your MAKERbuino with the most common mobile
phone charging cable.
3.3V Voltage Regulator (MCP1702-3302ET)
This 3-leaded component regulates the voltage from the Li-Po battery to stable 3.3V. We
need to do that because the battery’s 3.7V of electricity is just too much
for MAKERbuino’s circuitry and would fry the SD card.
Most people say, hey this is a transistor… no, this is not a transistor.
This particular shape of an electronic component is called the TO-92 package and it looks
the same as the 2n2222 transistor listed below (this transistor’s creators decided to use
the same package).
The only difference between the 2n2222 transistor and this voltage regulator is the text
written on the component.
The regulator should have MCP1702-3302ET written on its surface, whilst the transistor will
have 2N2222 written on its back. Use a magnifier if needed and check carefully if you have
the right component.
When soldering the regulator, be extra cautious not to accidentally swap it with the
transistor.
2n2222 General Purpose NPN Transistor
The general purpose transistor is used in the part of the MAKERbuino dedicated to producing
sound.
The transistor serves as an amplifier that drives the console’s speaker.
As said when describing the regulator above, don’t let the shape of this component trick you, this is
not a regulator (mind the tiny “2N2222” or “KSP 2222A –708” written on it!).

3.5mm headphone connector socket
This is a standard headphone connector socket used on most devices’ audio output channels. You can
connect your regular headphones to this connector to hear all the amazing bleeps and bloops your
MAKERbuino synthesizes.
16MHz Crystal
Inside this metallic package is a crystal used in MAKERbuino’s microcomputer’s
oscillator circuit.
In other words, MAKERbuino’s neat 16MHz of CPU clock is possible thanks to this
component.
Standard digital clocks and watches work on the same principle.
IMPORTANT: Text marking on the crystal may vary and sometimes look like this:
“16B000”
1N4148 Diode
This is a standard diode.
It’s used in MAKERbuino’s sound circuit.
This is NOT a light emitting diode (LED), it doesn’t light up, it’s used as an essential part of the sound’s
circuit amplifier.
3 Pin Toggle Switches (2 pcs)
These 3-leaded standard electromechanical switches are used for turning your MAKERbuino ON
and OFF and muting the speaker.
Capacitors
There are three different types of capacitors in your MAKERbuino kit
100uF Electrolytic Capacitors (3 pcs)
These look like small black barrels with two leads. They’re used for filtrating noise and
ensuring that MAKERbuino’s circuitry is powered with clean and stable electrical
current. These capacitors should have 100uF written on their surface. Unlike other
capacitors in the kit, these are polarized.
Electronics 101: only electrolytic capacitors are polarized and have significantly higher
capacity compared to other capacitors.

100nF ceramic capacitors (2 pcs)
The tiny yellowish capacitor with 104 written on it is a 100nF capacitor used for filtration and for digital
reset via the serial adapter board.
22pF ceramic capacitors (2 pcs)
These capacitors are used as a part of the 16MHz oscillating circuit along with the previously listed crystal.
They look similar to the 100nF capacitors so don’t let that trick you. Recognize them by number
22(symbolizing that they have the capacity of 22pF) written on their surface.
pushbuttons & button caps (7 pcs)
Nice and clicky big square push-buttons are pretty self-explanatory. They’re
MAKERbuino’s essential input devices used for switching menus, changing
programs, playing games… Button caps are just simply attached to the
button’s top side and can be changed.You can buy some extra
colored button caps in our webshop.
Various pin headers and connectors
All these pins and headers are used for connecting various modules, expansions, and programmers to your MAKERbuino board. There are four
types of connectors included in the MAKERbuino kit:
6 pin angled female header
This tiny black connector is used for connecting your MAKERbuino to the serial UART programmer board (important
for programming the console).
2x3 male angled ICSP header
Used for connecting expansion modules and an ISP programmer for reprogramming the game console’s
microcontroller over ICSP (in circuit system programming)
protocol.
2x5 male angle extra breakout header
The 10 pin double row angle header is soldered to the rightmost part of the game console and is
an extra option that gives you some extra useful pins for connecting hardware expansions.

KF2510 4-pin anti-reverse angle headers for i2c ports (2pcs)
These connectors go to the top side of the device and are used for connecting
expansion modules and other MAKERbuino’s or Gamebuino’s (multiplayer
games!).They’re just like all other connectors but with a special anti-reverse function
so that you can’t swap the polarity and short circuit your game consoles when
connecting them with the multiplayer link cable.
1k ohm wheel trim potentiometers (2pcs)
Wheel potentiometers are very important for regulating the screen’s backlight and dimming the
sound volume.The potentiometers have B102 written on their back indicating that they have
1Kohm of resistance (10 * 10^2 ohms).
Resistors
Resistors are standard passive two-lead electronic components that implement electrical resistance as a circuit element.
The resistors are used in MAKERbuino for all sorts of important tasks like adjusting signal levels and regulating current flow.
Every resistor’s resistance is measured in ohms.
You can determine the resistance of a resistor by using color code –reading a set of colored rings on the resistor.
There are four types of resistors used in the MAKERbuino kit:
•100 ohm resistor x1
This one is used when outputting sound to
MAKERbuino’s headphone jack.
Color code: brown, black, brown, golden
(*in some versions of the MAKERbuino kit, these
resistors might be labeled like this: brown, black,
black, black, brown or golden)
•2.2k ohm resistor x1
This one is important for driving the transistor in the
MAKERbuino’s sound circuit.
Color code: red, red, red, golden
•4.7k ohm resistor x2
These resistors are used as pull up resistors on i2c
lines (multiplayer and expansion ports).
Color code: yellow, purple, red, golden
•10k ohm resistor x2
These are important for driving the LCD screen and connecting the microcontroller to the serial UART programmer (for connecting
the MAKERbuino to your computer).
Color code: brown, black, black, red, golden

Electronics 101: reading resistor’s color code is quite easy, you just have to follow a color code table like this one over here.
Alternatively, you can also use a resistor color code calculator tool like this one: color code calculator.
Every pro maker has to know this resistor table by heart, and it’s quite easy using this interesting technique from resistorguide.com –you just
have to remember this sentence: Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts But Vodka Goes Well Get Some Now!

CHAPTER #2
Let's quickly cover the basic tools and material you'll need for assembling your MAKERbuino
You’ve carefully read the previous section and checked that you have all the components, good job!
There are some tools and equipment that are required for the assembly and they are not included in the standard kit.
If you’ve bought the standard kit (not a kit with tools) and don’t have them, now would be a good time to borrow or purchase them.
These tools are useful whenever assembling, fixing or modifying electronic devices and should be the part of every
maker’s/hacker’s/modder’s/electrician’s equipment.
Many of these are available in a supermarket or in some professional DIY electronics stores like Radio Shack, Adafruit, Sparkfun….
Soldering iron
Any entry level ‘all-in-one’ soldering iron that you might find at your local hardware store should
work (recommended power –something around 30W).
It’s a good idea to upgrade to a more expensive soldering station with temperature regulation if
you plan to dive into the world of DIY electronics more thoroughly.
Solder
We highly advise buying a rosin core, 60/40 solder.
This type of solder is usually preferred by the DIY electronics community for similar
soldering projects.
Be careful when buying solder, bad solder leads to lots of complications like bad solder
joints and unwanted bridging.
Diagonal Cutter Pliers
You’ll need pliers like this to trim leads of soldered components and cut wires.
We prefer this type showed on the picture (Plato, model 170).
Standard cross screwdriver
You’ll need this one to mount the casing and the LCD screen. A regular cross screwdriver
with a shaft diameter of 3mm or smaller is sufficient.

Some insulating tape
You’ll need some sort of adhesive to fixate MAKERbuino’s speaker to the back side
of the casing.
Our advice: some insulating or similar tape is the best choice here, but a tube of
superglue or a hot glue gun will also do the job. Although, it will not look as tidy as it
could if you’ve used the tape for fixation.
Extra: tools that are not mandatory for
assembling the MAKERbuino but might come in
handy
Here are a few tools that will prove useful if you plan to do some more making after you make your MAKERbuino:
Desoldering vacuum tool (aka. solder sucker)
This tool is useful in cleaning up soldering mistakes but is not 100% necessary for
assembling your MAKERbuino.
If you plan to do some hacking, modding, or any kind of hardware repair or rework in the
future, buying this one is a good idea.
Helping third hand with magnification
This one is also not necessary but will make your life (…and soldering) much easier when it
comes to assembling and/or repairing devices more complicated than the MAKERbuino.
Multimeter
It will prove useful for testing some tricky connections and measuring supply voltage. Besides that, a
good multimeter can help you test resistors, transistors, diodes, capacitors, measure the current and
do all sorts of other useful things.
Solder wick
You can use it along with the desoldering vacuum tool to clean up soldering mistakes.
It will clean the excess solder from the places unreachable with a regular desoldering
vacuum tool.

CHAPTER #3
MAKERbuino, it's time to meet your maker! (pun intended)
Soldering basics
Have you ever soldered before? If your answer is “yes”, you’ll probably know what you’re doing and you can just fastly skim through this intro
paragraph.
In case you’ve never soldered before, please take 10 minutes of your time and look at one of the following how-to-solder guides:
•Adafruit’s video tutorial featuring Collin Cunningham - https://youtu.be/QKbJxytERvg
•Adafruit’s standard soldering tutorial –https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering
•Sprakfun’s video soldering tutorial –https://youtu.be/f95i88OSWB4
•Sparkfun’s standard soldering tutorial –https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-solder-through-hole-soldering
To sum all of these tutorials up, making a good soldering joint is very important and can be quite easy is you follow this simple rule:
your soldering joint has to look like a small “volcano” and mustn’t be a tiny ball or blob or soldering. A bubbly blob-like soldering joint is a sign of
too much solder or a need of more heat (you have to resolder the joint).
All of this is shown on this awesome picture by Adafruit industries (thank you Adafruit!):
Motivational tip from Albert (the guy that designed the MAKERbuino)
Soldering is an essential skill if you want to become an electronics ninja one day.
Your soldering iron is a magical wand, only instead of enabling you to fight black magic, it gives
you the power to create unique intelligent electronic devices from scratch.
Don’t get frustrated by soldering failure, it’s just a matter of practice. You’ll get better in it over
time by soldering kits like MAKERbuino and working on other fun projects you decide to make. I
know how frustrating it can be when something doesn’t work from the first try. The truth is,
you’ll have to get used to it because you’ll get lots of that in the world of DIY electronics.
And please, don’t worry, In the worst case scenario (your MAKERbuino not working) we’ll make it
work together.
Good luck and keep making!

Pro tip:
We suggest that you start building the MAKERbuino when you’re fresh because the proces of assembly can take up to 5 hours depending on
your soldering skills (in other words, don’t start building it in 2AM)
Step 1 –the SD socket
We’ll start with the SD card socket –the big shiny metallic
component that is mounted on the PCB’s surface.
Find the SD socket, place it on the back side of the board where
there is “SD SOCKET” text written on it.
Continue by soldering the four pads of the socket’s
shielding.
When soldering the socket’s contacts, you DON’T have to
solder the three rightmost pins because they are not used.

Step 2 –Microcomputer’s socket
Microcomputer’s socket is also soldered at the back of the
MAKERbuino board.
Be careful how you rotate the socket because it’s not symmetrical. Be
sure to place it on the right side indicated by a notch on the socket
pro tip: first solder the two diagonal pins of the
socket, then make sure that the socket is aligned
with the board nicely, correct the alignment if
needed and solder the rest of the pins.
Step 3 –10k ohm resistor
Find the tiny 10kΩ resistor (colors: brown, black, black, red,
brown) and solder it to the front side of the board where the
R2 mark is (bottom side of the board) –this resistor is
necessary for the screen to work.

Pro tip: when you insert the resistor, bend the
leads of the resistor so that it doesn’t fall out
from the PCB while you’re soldering it.
Important: Remember to cut all the leads of the
components you’ve soldered using your diagonal
cutter pliers.
Also, save the excess leads you’ve cut, you’ll need
them in one of the further steps.
Step 4 –16MHz crystal
Find the 16MHz crystal and insert it on the front side of the
PCB (right half of the PCB, marked Q1, 16MHz).
IMPORTANT: Text marking on the crystal may vary and
sometimes look like this: “16B000”.

Apply the previous pro tip and bend the leads of
the crystal at the back of the board.
Step 5 –two 22pF capacitors
Solder the two 22pF ceramic capacitors (little red-ish
thingies with the number 22 written on them). Along
with the crystal, these are essential for the oscillating
circuit of the game console.
Step 6 –two slide switches
Now solder the two slide toggle
switches for turning the console ON and
OFF and muting the sound. They’re
soldered at the bottom side of the PCB and
labeled as SWITCH1 & SWITCH2.

The left switch is muting the sound and the right one will
turn the console’s power ON & OFF.
The switches have to go all the way down and sit nicely
on the PCB.
Step 7 –100uF electrolytic capacitors
Locate the three electrolytic capacitors (tiny black
barrels with two leads). The places for these are marked
on the PCB as C4, C5 and C7.
Important: these capacitors are polarized, make sure to
insert them properly.
The polarity of the capacitors is indicated with the big
white minus (-) sign on the capacitors (the big white
stripe).

Step 8 –3.3V voltage regulator &
2n2222 transistor
Important: These two components are very similar
so make sure to read the text on the components
carefully because that is the only way you can
recognize them.
(Please note that the text on your transistor may
vary and have something like “KSP 2222A – 708”
written on it. This happens because the different
manufacturers tend to write unique serial numbers
on their components)
Solder the regulator on the board where “IC2
3.3V” is marked and the transistor to the
spot with “T1 2N2222” marking on it.
Be careful to turn these components on the
right side!
Important: Make sure the flat side of the
regulator and the transistor faces down
towards the board, this is achieved by
bending the pins of the components by 90
degrees.