Arduino just unveiled four new powerful and cheap Nano boards
Arduino has announced four new Nano microcontroller-based boards that will be available for developers and makers in late July.
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The new lineup is compatible with the original Nano boards and includes the Nano Every, Nano 33 IOT, Nano 33 BLE, and Nano BLE Sense.
While often compared to the Raspberry Pi, the Arduino is built on a microcontroller that's connected to onboard RAM, making it ideal for narrowly defined electronics projects, whereas the Pi is built on a microprocessor connected to RAM that runs on Linux, allowing it to be used as a computer. Sometimes they're combined so a Pi can handle computing tasks while the Arduino handles controlling tasks.
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The cheapest and simplest of the new lineup is the Nano Every, which costs $9.90 and is based on the ATMega4809 microcontroller. It runs at 20 Mhz and comes with 48KB of Flash and 6KB of RAM.
The Nano 33 IOT costs $18, offering Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. It's powered by the SAMD21G18A microcontroller, runs up to 48 MHz with 256KB of flash and 32KB of RAM.
The IOT model is compatible with the Arduino IoT Cloud and comes with a chip that stores cryptographic keys in hardware, enabling Transport Layer Security (TLS) secured connections. It also features a six-axis inertial measurement unit.
The Nano 33 BLE costs $19 and as the name suggests its key feature is Bluetooth support, making it ideal for "short range BT interactions and power-savvy projects". It's built around the nRF52480 microcontroller and runs at 64MHz with 1MB flash and 256KB of RAM. Arduino notes it only supports 3.3V input and outputs (I/Os) and should not be used for connecting to 5V signals.
Finally, the Nano 33 BLE Sense is available for $29.50 and comes with a range of extra sensors to support wearable device and gesture-based projects. Otherwise it has the same basic tech specs as the BLE model. The additional sensors include a nine-axis Inertial Measurement Unit, as well as temperature, pressure, humidity, light, color, and gestures sensors.
Arduino also announced a new Arduino SIM for adding cellular connectivity to the $69.90 MKR GSM 1400 board and connecting them to the Arduino Cloud. A single Arduino SIM can be used in over 100 countries worldwide with one data plan, which offers 10MB free data for up to 90 days and then costs $1.50 per month for up to 5MB per month.
The new Nano boards are available for pre-order today and will ship by the end of July.