Know your Arduino Nano well

Arduino Nano is a small microcontroller which is breadboard-friendly. It has 30 pins in a DIP (Dual – In – line – Package) with 15 pins on either side so that it can be mounted in the center of the breadboard. The central notch of the breadboard will permit aeration of the lower side of the Arduino Nano when mounted in such a fashion. The processor inside is Atmel Mega 328, which is usually known as ATmega328. Just below the processor in the vertical image, the reset button is seen. A set of four LEDs are labelled as RX, TX, POW and L. All these are SMD (Surface Mount Device) components. USB Type B mini socket can be used to power the Arduino Nano as well as connect it to a computer for programming.

This is a slightly enlarged view showing the NANO label, ATmega328 and the USB mini socket well. Names of some of the pins are also better seen in this image.

The inscriptions on the ATmega328 chip are seen well in this zoomed image taken with a spotlight shining on it. Otherwise it is very difficult to read the details. A few of the pin names have also been captured well in this image.

Here is another chip on the reverse side of the Arduino Nano. It is a 16 pin device labelled CH340C. CH340 is a USB to serial converter chip used to facilitate communication between a computer’s USB port and devices that use serial communication like Arduino Nano. CH340C acts as a bridge, converting the USB data stream from the computer into a serial UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter) format, and vice versa. Thus it enables programming of Arduino Nano with a computer. CH340C is a variant with an internal clock oscillator, eliminating the need for an external crystal.

Image in another angle showing the nature of the mounting pins, though only a few of them are seen in this zoomed image.

The low dropout (LDO) linear voltage regulator IC 6118A can be seen in this highly magnified image. This one is also on the underside as you can gather from the mounting pins of the Arduino seen nearby.

Side view of the Arduino Nano showing the 30 pins. Six pins on upper side are also seen. USB mini socket is seen on the opposite side of those six pins.

View from the top showing the pin names in both rows.

Here we have a couple of Arduino Nanos mounted on a solderless breadboard. One of the devices has been connected with a USB Type A to type B mini cable for programming.

Close up view of the LEDs before we power on the device.

After connecting the power using a power bank, the PWR and L LEDs are lit up.

Short video clip before power on.

With power connected, PWR LED is lit continuously while the LED labelled L is blinking slowly.

See the transient fast blinking of the LED labelled L when the reset button is pressed. The usual slow blinking can be controlled using the blinking LED sketch which I had demonstrated earlier. RX and TX LEDs will blink when the device is connected to the computer and a sketch is being uploaded using Arduino IDE.