USB arduino programming

I was curious if you could cut a USB cord (4 pin) and use that to program the arduino nano or other boards that would require the USB/FTDI. Could you cut the usb cord, and wire the 5v to the 5v, ground to ground, data + to rx and data - to tx?

No!

Mark

The Nano has an onboard USB adapter and doesn't need an external USB adapter.

Assuming you have one Arduino with working USB, you can use that to program any other Arduino that has the ICSP pins accessible. That avoids needing USB or the bootloader on the target Arduino.

PeterH:
The Nano has an onboard USB adapter and doesn't need an external USB adapter.

Assuming you have one Arduino with working USB, you can use that to program any other Arduino that has the ICSP pins accessible. That avoids needing USB or the bootloader on the target Arduino.

Could you please explain a little. I don't understand the ICSP pins. Also, If you were to use the mini, could you do it that way? I have a Mega 2560 and would like to get a bunch of minis to use but need easy programming. Much Apreciated

Get an FTDI Basic, use that to program the minis. Very easy.

From the mini page:
"To program the Arduino Mini, you will need a USB Serial adapter or other USB or RS232 to TTL serial adapter. See the page on getting started with the Arduino Mini for instructions."