Oh shoot. I'm sorry bro, I wasn't thinking straight earlier. You are working with a Pro Mini, I always work with an Atmega 328 Chip from the Arduino Duemilanove. I have read in the past that pro minis are received defective, without the arduino bootloader, or with the wrong bootloader. If you have access to another functional arduino, you can use it to re-flash the bootloader. Read https://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.ph … mp;t=27960 for help.  As for the pinout, it is on a different HDD, and I believe it wouldn't help you too much since you are using a mini and not a Uno or Duemilanove.

Yeah I read something about the reset using some component. I would love a pin out .
Also I installed the latest dcxx driver for the ftdi. There was also a virtual driver but i didnt install. Now i have a com3 port displayed in the settings and seems to transmit to the ftdi. Same error none the less. also just soldered 6 wires from the ftdi to the Pro Mini.

I tried hitting the reset but I'm not really clear on how or when to hit it during upload.
Also what device should I select in the tools, every site says something different.

Not the case - this is the latest arduino pro mini revision (A6 and A7 are accessible)

edit: of course it might still have old bootloader but I doubt it

are you supposed to hit the reset button when these are being programmed?   the old arduino boards were like this, but they worked that out in the firmware so you don't need to reset them to program,

but, perhaps your firmware isn't the latest, or this model didn't get that revision?

(just a shot in the dark)

Any other COM options? Also try disconnectiong other usb devices.

did you install the FTDI drivers?

I've worked with homebrew arduino boards in the past. This problem is because of using two small or large capacitors. I believe it is because the reset pin needs to auto-reset something to do with the capacitors. 0.1 uf has given me the best luck. I can give you a full pin out when I return from school.

FTDI is for programming arduino boards that don't have a USB port

I just bought an Arduinoboy kit from Nex over at noisechannel.org (haven't built it yet though) and it came with the Arduino Pro Mini preprogrammed but it did not come with that FTDI board so I'm not even sure if that is needed.  Maybe you can message Nex directly at noisechannel.org.  I'm sure he can help you out.

I just rounded up all the necessary components for my adruinoboy and I need some help because I'm relatively new to microcontrollers.

I'm using an Adruino pro mini 5V that is hooked up to a 5V ftdi basic then into a usb port into my mac.
For simplicities sake, I'm running Windows XP thru VMFusionware and trying to program the adruinoboy sketch files with adruino software provided by their website.

So I click open>Desktop\Aruinoboy1_2_3\Arduinoboy1_2_3\Arduinoboy1_2_3.ino
Then have tools>board set to pro mini 5v atmega328
also set tools>com1

As far as the tools>programmer> ? I have no idea which setting I need but I tried them all and butt-kiss.

Now when I hit upload it starts then ends with "avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00"

I'm not quite sure where to go from here...
Anybody have any experience programming pro mini's with arduinoboy software that'd be glad to help, please?
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Edit: I have programmed .hex files burning them to microcontroller chips like the atmega8 before but I've seem to reach a bump in the road on this one.

Here is photos of how I've soldered the FTDI basic to the backside of the Arduino Pro Mini, I do believe its correct but this is my first Arduino device.

The FTDI Basic

The Arduino Pro Mini