Any drawbacks to cutting off ICSP pins on nano?

Other Hardware 3rd Party Boards
1

Hi all,

I bought a nano (3.0) because I have a project where I need to fit an arduino + components in the smallest space possible (in addition to a uno that I use for learning and testing). The ICSP pins that are sticking out of the top are a bit in the way, so I was planning to cut them off. Probably not all the way, but at least to the point that they don't protrude more upwards than the USB-port on the other side. I was just wondering if I'm not shooting myself in the foot doing this, considering possible future projects. As far as I understand, you only need them if you would want to flash a new firmware on the chip. Is there any occasion where I would want to do that?
Thanks,
Steven

2

I presume you can download sketches via the USB interface? So the only real reason for the ICSP pins is to burn a new bootloader, not something you should normally have to do.

You can probably trim them down (or remove them completely). If you really have to reprogram it one day you could just solder on 6 wires and run them out to a 6 pin header, or clip them on with clips or something.

3

Thanks Nick :slight_smile:
Then it is just as I assumed. I can indeed download and run sketches normally through USB. I will trim the pins down so I could still use them if need be.