With all the clones.. Whats real? .. Easy way to spot clone Zeros

Other Hardware 3rd Party Boards
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So after spending the last few days writing the code for my experimental RC, I finally got to the testing phase…. Or so I thought..

Apparantly, the bag of Nano chips I have (bought a few years ago) are all clones.. They all have an issue, of some sort.. Most don’t want to be reqognized by windows.. I have managed to flash some software, but to discourage to test anything other than “Yep, it blinks..”

Anyways.. After some digging, I came to a realization, I wanted to share, as I’ve seen others frustrated, and others trying to help, which now I see why is leaving people even more frustrated!

The ‘clone’, ‘fake’, ‘garbage’, ‘cheap af’, whatever you want to call them, Nano chips.. ..

DON’T HAVE A ICSP PORT!

So look at the pictures before purchase.. If you can read RX TX on that 6 pin header.. They are fake, and prob not worth your time.. Unless frustration and hair pulling are your thing LOL..

I’m sure they have more differences, aside from, well, not working for SH** .. but I wanted to mention this for 2 reasons..

1 - It’s pretty easy to spot in the description pictures

2 - If your one of the ones trying to help a frustrated user, and walking thru the Arduino as ISP … WELL .. It does NOT have the ICSP header.. So you better remember that and point out the real wires..

Still no clue what the back 3 posts are for, but you can pretty easily see the RX TX PWR on the first 3..

Also, not to be discourged fellow helpers! Your help was still VERY appreciated, even if it did come to this flaw, at least I know what it is now.. And am able to share the discovery..

Have to RF-Nanos already coming, before I found this out.. Just cause in the end they will work and look better than a Nano with a board hanging out, and antenna popping off that.. Wish I had bought a few of the WiFi ones.. However, I also have a PI Zero 2 WiFi coming, so I’ll live.. I guess.. heh

Thanks guys! Hope this helps someone, or at least makes it easier to tell if you got duped (sorry, I didn’t do it, I buy them not sell them…)!

-Dycast

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Please show a photo

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To inform your argument would require at least a photo of the offending devices. I use dozens of cheap Nano classic clones, and have yet to have any fail on me. Most were bought from Amazon, the last dozen or so from AliExpress, and other than having an upgraded processor on the last one, all have been just fine.

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Other confused beginners may well read your post and believe that it has helped them, but I'm afraid it will only confuse them further.

You mention "clone Zeroes" in the topic subject but then don't mention them again in the body of your post. Perhaps that was a typo?

In the body of your post you mention "Nano chips". I've never heard of a Nano chip, so I wonder if you meant Nano board? The "classic" Nano board contains several chips including one of several possible USB-to-serial chips, one of several possible voltage regulator chips and the MCU chip itself, which is usually one of several variants of the ATMEGA328.

To add to the confusion, there are quite a few boards that are called "Nano" these days, and they all have different chips on them. Your descriptions of what you have don't help much in identifying exactly what you do have.

So I would warn other beginners reading this, and thinking that they have the same problem, not to jump to conclusions based on your angry rant.

Beginners often have problems getting classic Nano boards to work on Windows, and usually these are easily solved by installing the correct drivers and using the correct configuration.

But forum members don't have psychic powers, so always post a photo or link to the board you have and post the error messages (using code tags) you see so that the forum members have something to work with. And please, please read the forum guide before you post!

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Welcome!

Many of the Nano boards I purchased did not have ICSP pins BUT there were through hole solder pads so they could be added. As far as Nano chips I do not have a clue as to what you are talking about. I also have never seen a processor with ICSP pins set so you could connect a ribbon cable header. The black thing with pins on all 4 sides is the microprocessor (chip). You can see where the ICSP pin header goes on the right side of the Nano board. I am waiting to see your picture,

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The ICSP (In-Circuit Serial Programming) pinout typically includes six pins: MISO (Master In Slave Out), MOSI (Master Out Slave In), SCK (Serial Clock), RESET, VCC (power), and GND (ground). This configuration allows for programming microcontrollers directly on the circuit board without removing them.

I apparently missed it what are clone zeros?

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You mean like this?

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I am a bit confused about several of the points in your post.

After a while I suspected you meant Nano boards.
Presumably you are not referring to the ATmega328P chips on them, but the whole board?

Do you mean like the photo in #5 or like the below? These are labels for functions of the adjacent LEDs. It does not automatically follow that the chip on the board is fake. Except for GND and 5V, the remainder of those pins connect directly to the 328P chip. The pinout of the ICSP header on a classic Nano with ATmega328P is as follows:

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The board illustrated is a genuine Nano board made by Gravitech, and also has the 'RX', 'TX', 'PWR' and 'L' labels on the silkscreen.

Is that one of the WiFi or Bluetooth Nano boards like the Nano ESP32, Nano RP2040 Connect or Nano 33 BLE? So I guess you purchased Genuine Arduino boards instead of clones?

No idea what you mean by that?

These are meant to be decent boards.[quote="Dycast, post:1, topic:1430488"]
However, I also have a PI Zero 2 WiFi coming
[/quote]

There are things to be aware of on the clone Nano boards. For example, some have UART chips that have no markings and sometimes present as FTDI. These are fake UART chips but that's a different issue to the one you seem to be describing. Its usually best to find a clone that has an actual CH340 chip onboard. Also, many clone Nano boards have ATmega328PB chips on them instead of ATmega328P. They are functionally nearly identical, but the PB variant has an extra I2C port and pull-up resistors on pins A6 and A7. The chips are often mounted on a board designed for the 328P and do not take this into account so the second I2C pins usually cannot be used.

Might some boards have fake ATmega328P/B chips on them? Its always a possibility when buying direct from China, but given the scale of production and very low cost, it seems rather unlikely.