Something on my Nano burned out

Official Hardware Nano Family Classic Nano
1

I was working with a Nano as an ISP on my project and it started to act up and then a burning smell came from it. It no longer works when plugging it in via usb.

I also noticed that now anything plugged into the front panel usb ports on my pc seems to have issues. My 3d printer screen flickers, my external hd was hanging / beeping randomly, etc. I moved things to the back panel and stuff seems fine now.

I think my front panel might have burned it self out and hence burned the arduino or some feedback loop between the two burned both out?

I connected the Nano via the VIN to a battery and it still works that way! I was even able to connect usb to it and can still program / interact with it...! At times connecting would say, "device descriptor request failed" but powering off/on and attempting again can get it working.

At first I thought maybe the FTDI chip burned out but if I can connect via usb that feels dubious. Visually inspecting the board I don't see anything that looks burned out.

  1. I'm not really sure how to debug it any further to determine if I could replace a component to get usb working again or if the board is better just being thrown out.

  2. I'm not really sure how to debug the front panel of my pc incase that's the real problem that caused all of this.

  3. Would it make sense to use some kind of usb hub that perhaps has it's own power to protect my pc in the future?

Any help super appreciated .

2

That’s what I always do (well as much as I can). I have a powered USB hub in between my Mac and the arduinos. This Prevents short circuits you might involuntarily create on the usb power or high voltage to data or power line to reach your computer. At worst you kill the hub but they come cheap compared to replacing the motherboard or a laptop

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I found another thread that said the cheap powered hubs don't always truly protect you? I was trying to search around for a good one but cheapest I found was $48?

ex: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G7GP15C/

4

$48 is always better than a few thousands :wink:

yes it's not 100% foolproof, depends how things are wired internally I suppose.

so far I never damaged my Mac nor my hub despite killing a few arduinos... so hard to tell if it's more for peace of mind... better safe than sorry is my approach there

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