Hello! I'm setting up my first Arduino, and I'm having a little trouble identifying the correct board core for the Nano 33 BLE Sense in IDE 2.0. I installed the Mbed OS core for Nano boards, which it says the Nano 33 BLE Sense uses, but the Mbed OS Nano Boards menu has no option for the Nano 33 BLE Sense in the menu, only the Nano 33 BLE and Nano RP2040 Connect. The tutorial also shows only these two options in one of the images. I did try selecting the Nano 33 BLE, but when I attempted to upload a sketch, I got a "no device found" error for both available ports. Likewise, I cannot find an option for the Nano 33 BLE Sense in the Web Editor and when I select Nano 33 BLE, the board selector shows a red cross.
Can anyone confirm that Mbed OS core for Nano is indeed the correct core and Nano 33 BLE is the correct board type to use for the Nano 33 BLE Sense?
The reason is that, as far as the core is concerned, the "Nano 33 BLE" and "Nano 33 BLE Sense" boards are equivalent because they have the same microcontroller and pin mapping. The only difference is the "Nano 33 BLE Sense" has some sensors added on the board. The core doesn't contain any code for those sensors (dedicated libraries contain that code), so the presence or absence of the sensors is irrelevant for the core.
So you should use the "Arduino Nano 33 BLE" board selection for your "Nano 33 BLE Sense".
Which version of the Arduino IDE are you using? Arduino IDE 2.0.0-rc9.1 had a bug that caused this error when an upload was attempted with the Serial Monitor or Serial Plotter open, so it is possible you are affected by that.
That bug is fixed in the latest release Arduino IDE 2.0.0-rc9.2.
Same thing there, use the "Arduino Nano 33 BLE" board selection.
Try this:
Press and release the "RST" button on the Nano 33 BLE Sense board twice quickly.
You should now see the "L" LED on the board pulsing to indicate the bootloader is running. If not, you might not have gotten the timing of the double reset right, so try again.
When the board is in that bootloader mode, is the port detected? Are you then able to do an upload?
Thank you so much, this was super helpful! It turned out to be a problem with the connecting cable being charge-only, but it was very helpful to rule out the core issue and discover the RST button for later troubleshooting.