ARDUINO NANO 33 IOT
Could this new board offer more for less money?
“Powering the Arduino Nano Every is an ATMega4809 processor running at 20MHz. This may not sound like a lot of power, but for most projects this is plenty. ”
Arduino offers the gold standard for microcontrollers, and with the latest batch of boards we see a refresh of the design and microcontroller. Let’s start with the design. Rather than use the de-facto Arduino Uno layout, we see a 44mm by 18mm board, similar to the original Arduino Nano board, designed to be inserted into a breadboard. The Nano Every can be bought with or without soldered header pins, but both offer the same features. The unsoldered version, reviewed here, has spaces for the header pins to be soldered into, but there are also spaces to solder the board directly to another board via castellated mounting holes. Using these holes, we can solder a low-profile project, perhaps a surface-mount project, with ease.
Powering the Arduino Nano Every is an ATMega4809 processor running at 20MHz. This may not sound like a lot of power, but for most projects this is plenty. The ATmega4809 is not directly compatible with the older ATMega328P from Uno boards. But Arduino has cleverly created a compatibility layer that enables the Nano Every to work out of the box with all previous projects and libraries. The ATMega4809 processor retains 5V logic compatibility with older Arduino projects, but also provides a second serial interface. Why is that useful?
Typically older Arduino models had one serial interface, which could only be used by one device at a time, such as a GPS tracker. The output of the serial interface could not be seen by the user. With two serial interfaces, one can be reserved for use with a GPS tracker, and the output can be printed to the serial monitor for user debugging.
To power the board, typically the Micro USB port is used with a suitable 5V supply. But the board can also be powered via a new power supply architecture that offers up to 21V input voltage, regulated by an onboard DC to DC converter. This also provides up to 950mA of current for peripherals without overheating. So now we can power 15 neopixels at full brightness without stressing the board.
So who is the intended audience for this board, and what will they be making? This is an entry-level board for those new to Arduino, and it has been designed to be easy to use with software and hardware. It can be programmed using the standard Arduino IDE, Arduino’s own cloud-based Arduino IDE and the recently released Arduino Pro IDE. The size of the board lends itself to embedded applications, wearables and robotics.
The Arduino Nano Every has a lot going for it: a very low price for an official Arduino board, which could tempt many away from using clone boards; compatibility with older boards and sketches; and a small form factor. If you are looking to buy your first Arduino then this is a viable choice. The only thing that lets this board down is the GPIO pins, which have no visible reference. Arduino boards often have their pin references written upon the top of the board, but the Nano Every has this reference on the underside of the board, which is not much use when used with a breadboard.
It may not be an allpowerful CPU monster, but do we really need that much power to make an LED flash or to control a robot? This is a simple and cheap board designed to help you dip your toe into embedded electronics, and it will suit the needs of most who just want to get a project working with small overheads.