Hi
Was looking at a fried Nano this AM, and realized the CH340 is just fine, it's just the '328 that took a 12V hit on an I/O pin(or several). So, maybe I could make use of the CH340 portion of the duff board as a 'hack' serial-USB interface for another Nano. On the good Nano, I would use Software Serial at 9600 or 19200 for diagnostics and keyboard commands, while using the normal hardware serial for RS485 comms at 115200.
I can't see a gotcha in this, but I thought I'd throw it out there - is there a fundamental reason why this won't work? I know, I might have to tie the good Nano's reset line to the 'hack' CH340, but that's easy. I'd likely gut the rest of the duff Nano card, keeping as little as possible, and feeding it 5V from the good Nano.
Looking for feedback, crazy idea or not? I have an occasional need to see, and influence, what's going on in one of my RS485 nodes, and this might be a neat way to use Serial Monitor, or a serial terminal program, as an occasional tool.