Arduino Nano 33 BLE Pinout And specifications

The Arduino Nano 33 BLE is the advanced version of Arduino Nano. The Nano BLE 33 is based on a robust and powerful processor which is nRF52840 from Nordic Semiconductors. It was launched by the Arduino company in July 2019. It features 32 times bigger program memory than the Arduino Uno board.

Here BLE stands for “Bluetooth Low Energy” which is low power-consuming wireless communication technology that can be used over a short distance to enable smart devices to communicate. 

The Main focus of Arduino Nano BLE is to transmit and receive data while consuming low energy. The 33 in the board name signifies that the device is compatible with 3.3v of input and output.

The board also features a lot of sensors that were not available in the Arduino nano board and it is the reason behind the Arduino Nano BLE 33 is a great choice for beginners or professionals who are dealing with Bluetooth-enabled projects. In this article, we will go through the information related to Arduino board but before this, if you have not read about Arduino Nano pinout then we recommend you to check it out first. 

Arduino Nano BLE 33 Board Layout

Processor 

It comes with an nRF52840 chip which is a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 CPU clocked at 64MHZ. 

Ram And Flash Memory 

Arduino Nano BLE 33 comes with 256kb of Random Access Memory And 1Mb of flash memory.

USB Micro Power Port

The Arduino Nano BLE comes with a micro USB port which is used to connect to the PC and power the board. 

LSM9DS1-9 axis IMU

The Nano BLE chip consists of a 3D digital angular rate sensor, a 3D digital magnetic sensor, and a 3D digital linear acceleration sensor And is used to measure the angular velocity, magnetic field strength, and linear acceleration respectively on all three axes. The maximum refresh rate for the accelerometer and gyroscope sensor is 952Hz and it is up to 80 Hz for the magnetometer.

APDS9960

This chip features gesture detection, proximity detection, ambient Light Sense (ALS), and Color Sense (RGBC).

Gesture motion uses a set of four directional photodiodes to sense the reflected IR energy to convert the physical motion information to digital information.

LPS22HB

This chip is used as the pressure sensor which functions as a digital barometer.  

The LPS22HB has a sensing element and IC interface which interacts with various communication protocols like I2C and SPI in Arduino.

ARM MBED OS

The ARM MBED OS allows the NANO 33 BLE application protocol interfaces to be integrated using application protocol interfaces exposed directly by Mbed OS.

U-Blox NINA-B306

The Arduino Nano BLE 33 comes with a powerful 2.4GHz Bluetooth having 5 low energy modules with an antenna.

Arduino Nano BLE 33 Specifications

The specifications of Arduino Nano BLE 33 are as follows:-

Arduino Nano BLE 33 Pinout

Digital pins

In Arduino Nano BLE 33 there are a total of 14 digital input output pins available. As we know digital pins can only read two states which are:-

1. High
2. Low 

The signal high is also represented by 1 and the low signal by 0. These are the values that are shown when there is a signal of 5v and when there is no signal respectively.

PWM Pins Of Nano BLE 33

The digital pins present on the Arduino Nano BLE 33 are also used as PWM pins. The work of PWM pins is to convert the digital inputs to analog output. 

PWM pins are generally from D2 to D12 and A0 to A7 but Pins A4, A5, and D11, D12 are not recommended for PWM as they have I2C & SPI buses attached.

Analog Pins

There are a total of 8 analog pins available on Arduino Nano BLE 33 which are from pin A0 – A7. These pins can get any value unlike digital pins. These pins are used to measure analog voltage ranging between 0 to 5v. Each of the analog pins has an inbuilt ADC having resolution of 2¹² bits. 

Communication Pins OF Nano BLE 33

I2C Pins

I2C is a two-wire serial communication protocol. It stands for “Inter-Integrated Circuit.” It uses two pins for communication purposes. One of them is used to send data while the other pin is used to receive data. 

The two pins of the I2C protocol are the “Serial Clock Pin(SCA)” and “Serial Data Pin(SDA)”.

• SCA – It is defined as the line which transfers the clock data. SCA pin is used to synchronize the shift of data in between two devices. This signal is generated by the master device.

It is a clock line

• SDA – It is defined as the line which is used by slave devices to send and receive data. It is a data line.

I2C pins on the board are A4 which is SDA and A5 which is SCL.

SPI Pins

The board supports the “Semi – Peripheral Communication Protocol” or SPI. The SPI protocol is used to develop communication between the controller device and its peripheral devices.

Three pins are needed for SPI communication protocol which is:- 

• MISO – It stands for Master Input/Slave Output. This data line sends data to the master device. 
• MOSI – It stands for Master Output/Slave Input. This data line is used for sending data to slaves/peripheral devices.
• SCK – This pin is used to synchronize the data transfer between the master and slave device.

SPI pins on the board are D11 which is used as the MOSI pin, D12 which is used as the MISO pin, and D13 which is used as the SCK pin.

UART Pin

The Arduino Nano BLE 33 consists of a UART communication protocol which is used for serial communication. It consists of two pins which are Rx and TX.

• Rx – This pin is used to transmit the serial data.
• TX – This pin is used to receive the serial data.

UART pins are D0 which act as TX pin and D1 which act as Rx pin.

Power Pins

3.3v Pin

This pin works as the output. It has a regulated voltage of 3.3v. The Arduino Nano BLE 33 supports 3.3v logic hence applying 5v logic can damage the board.

5v pin

The 5v pin is used as the output for external components. The output is 5v. The power source of the 5v pin is a USB connector and a Vin pin.

GND pin

This pin is used as the ground pin of the board. There are a total of 5 ground pins available on the board.

Vin

This pin is used for input voltage. The input voltage is a modulated direct current supply voltage. 

The input voltage is used to regulate the IC used in the connections. Vin is also known as the primary voltage source on the Arduino board.

General Pins

RST Pin

This pin is used to resetting the connection. For resetting the microcontroller we have to bring down this pin to LOW.

AREF

This pin stands for analog reference. This pin provides the voltage reference at which the microcontroller is operating.

LED Indicators

The Arduino BLE 33 consists of 4 LED indicators which are:-

1. Power LED(Green):- It is used to indicate that the Arduino board is powered on.
2. Programmable LED(Orange):- This LED can be programmed accordingly.
3. Programmable RGB LED:- The Arduino Nano BLE 33 comes with a programmable LED that is connected to pins 22(RED), 23(GREEN), and 24(BLUE).

Frequently Asked Questions:-

Q:- Does the Arduino Nano 33 BLE sense have WiFi?

No. It does not have a built-in WiFi feature, It only has built-in BLE connectivity.

Q:- How many devices can BLE support?

BLE or Bluetooth low energy can establish up to 20 connections simultaneously.

Q:- How much battery does BLE use?

A BLE connection may use between 1-3% of a phone’s battery over a 24-hour span.

Q:- What is the difference between Arduino Nano 33 BLE sense and Arduino Nano 33 BLE?

The difference between the Arduino Nano 33 BLE and the Arduino Nano 33 BLE sense is that instead of “just” a 9-axis IMU, Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense also has temperature, pressure, humidity, light, and sound sensors.

Q:- where can I buy Arduino nano 33 BLE?

You can buy the Board from the official Arduino store.