I just got an Arduino Nano. It's labeled "v3.0" on the board "Mega328P" on the AVR chip. Selected the correct device in the Tools > Board menu, "Arduino Nano w/ ATmega328". When I plug it in, extra serial ports do NOT show up in the Tools > Serial Port menu (just the Bluetooth devices are shown there), and the "L" LED on pin 13 is flashing red continually, several times a second. The "Pwr" LED is green, and the Tx and Rx LEDs never flash.
I'm new to the Arduino, but I've been using an Arduino Uno successfully for 3 weeks now. I figured that the Nano should be equally easy to use, just plug in the cable to the USB port and Cmd-U to upload.
Is there anything I'm missing, anything that I should do to use the Nano that I don't have to do with the Uno?
I got a short USB cable with the Nano, have also tried a different cable, neither of them worked.
Tried restarting my Mac, tried restarting the Arduino IDE; tried plugging the cable in to each of the two USB ports on the Mac...no help.
Looking at this more closely, I can see the Rx and Tx LEDs do flash briefly when the Nano restarts; the Tx LED does flash red. Perhaps this is how this board is built, red LEDs were used for the Tx and Pin 13 LEDs?
Responses to other postings from people with problems uploading to their Arduino mention that sometimes the manufacturer has left a test program on the board that makes the LED flash. Maybe that's what's happening here, there's a test program that is making the LED flash rapidly?
If so, the chief problem is that the board doesn't show up as a serial port in the Arduino IDE. Anyone have any suggestions on how to debug this problem?
bwilson42:
If so, the chief problem is that the board doesn't show up as a serial port in the Arduino IDE. Anyone have any suggestions on how to debug this problem?
Return it to eBay or Amazon and buy a Genuine Nano.
@James: Thanks, I think that's it! I don't have the driver installed for the FTDI chip. Been spoiled working with the Uno! I'll install the driver tonight and see how it goes.
@perhof: yes, I bought this board from Hong Kong on Amazon. I'll ignore the red flashing LEDs if I can get it to work OK!
I just bought a Chinese Arduino Nano V3.0 with FT232RL +USB cable on AliExpress.
When I plug it in to my USB port on my laptop on which I am running Gentoo Linux, there is no Port in Arduino IDE and a red LED blinking continuously on Arduino Nano board.
but that is not helped me out.
Maybe this board has not the CH341 serial converter chip, but CH340?
If this is the case, then the kernel module ch341 is useless for my board?
This did not fix the issue. The issue for me wasn't only the FTDI chip, but also I read in the item description that this knockoff used the CH340 chip on the board. After installing these drivers (Windows 7) a new port showed up in the Aruduino program which showed the nano and the rapid red flashing light stopped.
As mentioned the red strobing light stopped, but sketches wouldn't load, so also had to go to tools>ATmega328p (old bootloader) which worked. Can load a simple sketch and run it no problem now.
The best advice on this thread is likely return it and buy a Genuine Nano, but if you try these steps you just might get it to function. €3 for this 'nano' or €10 Nano that works...
keichippe:
The best advice on this thread is likely return it and buy a Genuine Nano, but if you try these steps you just might get it to function. €3 for this 'nano' or €10 Nano that works...
I don't see your point. There are thousands of people that use the cheap knock-off without issue; just like you who has now figured out how the solve the issue.
Both the driver issue and the 'old bootloader' option have been discussed ad infinitum; just a matter of searching
