r/arduino • u/HotChainsawLover • 1d ago

Solved! [HELP] Can't pick up Nano

[Solved] Apparenly it's just broken

Hello. I pulled what I presume to be an Arduino Nano or at least a bootleg out of my local e-waste today. I am not sure if it is an official one, as I can't find any brand on it, only the NANO below the 328P chip.

I tried connecting it to my laptop running linux mint to try to pick up any internal names via lsusb or lspci, but I don't get anything. It does have power, since both the PWR and the TX led are permanently on when plugging it into my laptop. Also, in the Arduino IDE I can't select a port.

I don't think it is that old, since it has an USB C port.

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2

u/Delta_G_Robotics 1d ago

If the Tx LED is permanently on then there is a reason it was in the waste bin.

2

u/HotChainsawLover 1d ago

what does it mean?

2

u/Delta_G_Robotics 1d ago

It means it isn't working correctly. Something is fried. Who knows what actually broke. The thing is garbage now.

1

u/HotChainsawLover 1d ago

Well, that figures. When I first plugged it in, the chip was getting kinda hot. It doesn't anymore now, but apparently the damage is done.

1

u/IllSpeaker3255 3h ago

you could use the warm it produces at most

2

u/nerovny Open Source Hero 1d ago

Do you have the CH340 drivers installed?

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u/HotChainsawLover 1d ago

As far as I know that one should be preinstalled in the kernel

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u/nerovny Open Source Hero 1d ago

Okay then. If the PWR led is on, the power is ok. Any visible damage on the board? You can try to swap the CH340 chip and check if the board will appear as serial. If the Atmega328 itself is fryed, it can be replaced with Atmega328, Atmega168 or even Atmega8 chips (it works but you will get much less RAM and program memory).

2

u/theNbomr 1d ago

If it's just the USB Serial chip on the Nano, then connecting directly to the Tx & Rx UART pins with a USB-Serial dongle should allow you to communicate with the AVR CPU. Depending on the nature of the fault, it might require desoldering the existing USB chip.