Having received the minDUINO v1.6 boards today, I’ve built one up and it’s all fine. I do like to prove a board before I publish it. I’ll be placing the design files online shortly.
As with v1.5, the FTDI module works fine. Subject to there being an Arduino™ bootloader or similar pre-programmed into the ATMEGA328. You can purchase these chips pre-bootloaded on eBay. Of course, you can always go the ICSP route which doesn’t require the bootloader.