You might look up various DIY arduino designs (starting on a breadboard). You can start with very barebones selection of components, move it to a proto-board, a

You might look up various DIY arduino designs (starting on a breadboard). You can start with very barebones selection of components, move it to a proto-board, and then modify it to your needs. Adafruit and Sparkfun have great resources for how everything they sell works.