Arduino Nano to Arduino Uno Adapter

Arduino Nano is a nice, small and cheap member of the Arduino family. It is based on the Atmega328 chip, what makes it as powerful as the biggest his brother Arduino Uno, but it can be obtained for less money. In Ebay now Chinese versions can be bought for less than 3 USD. Additionally to its smaller size comparing with Arduino Uno, the Nano board has also the advantage to have two more analog inputs A6,A7. So far so good... But Arduino Nano has also some disadvantages compared with Uno.

• Extension shields can not be used directly with Arduino Nano;
• External power supply source different than 5V can not be used - no DC jack presents.
• For the generating of the internal 3.3V is used the embedded in the Atmega328 voltage regulator, which can not provide currents higher than 100-150 mA.
• Making small experimental projects require the presence of a breadboard.

All these problems are solved by the Arduino Nano to Uno conversion board developed by me.

This instructable describe the design of the adapter board.

Step 1: Nano - Uno Comparisson

The picture shows the difference in the sizes of both boards and the correspondence between the pins.

It can be seen that the Nano board has two additional analog pins A6,A7 , which are absent in Uno.

On the adapter board these pins are added and can be used.

Step 2: The Circuit of the Adapter Board

The schematic of the adapter board is presented on the picture. The most remarkable is that additional voltage regulator is used for the generation of the 3.3V supply.

Step 3: The PCB

The gerber files of the PCB are attached at this step. They are generated according the rules of PCBway - Chinese PCB manufacturing company, which works very fast and with high quality. The prices are in contrary very low. Additionally you can chose the PCB colour without price increase. To produce and deliver the PCB's them take only ten days. On the picture can be seen also that they can produce boards, which have a form different than simple rectangle.

Update: There was small problem in the gerber files. I have solved it, but I am not able to upload more them. To download them or directly to order PCB's you can use the following link.

Step 4:

There are only few devices, which must be soldered on the board. The most complicated and time consuming operation is the cutting of the pin headers. I bought in eBay 40 pin 2.54 mm female headers, which I cut according the needed pin count. For that purpose I use small jigsaw and after that sandpaper. It can be seen that the Arduino Nano board is positioned at the edge of the conversion board to ease the access to the USB connector.

Step 5: Work With Shields

The board can be used with the standard expansion shields for Arduino Uno / Duemilanove and some of the Mega shields. The only requirement is that, the shield needs to have longer pins. Some of the spread shields have them (for example the ETH shield, which can be bought in eBay). If the shield has the shorter ones - they can be replaced with long ones. The pictures show how the union Arduino Nano - the adapter board - some extension shield will look like.

Thank you for the attention.

Step 6: Appendix

Here is the BOM for all interested in.

Comments

[johnslevinis]

I was just about to design my own when I came across yours, much better than I could have done! Am i right in thinking that I could put the headers for the Nano, under the board, and assemble the nano with long pins sticking upwards, and then not need the extra long pins for the shields?

[Milen]

Very Nice idea. I think that you even do not need to solder long pins to arduino nano. Please, after making it, publish it with some pictures under the link "I made this project" to allow other people to use your idea.
Regards
Milen

[Danny09]

Awesome project! I’m working on making it, but having trouble figuring out some of the parts. Do you happen to have a BOM?

[GuidoA1]

The same for me.....Do you have any reply? Thanks

[Uhwah]

Hello,

Thank you for the great board.
I wanted to have this board made for me.However, the holes seem to be missing when I upload it to PCBWAY or other service providers.

[Milen]

Hi,
They should be there. Even twice. One file containing this information is the *.drd, the other is the *.txt file. If you have any doubts - contact the PCB maker if everything is OK.

[Uhwah]

I sent the data to PCBWAY and you were right.The holes are there.
However, I received a request from PCBWAY. It seems like four rings are wrong or too many. Unfortunately I have no idea about creating PCBs. Could you tell me if I can just remove these rings?Or are they needed?

That is the request from PCBWAY:
Shall we expose the specified part in GTP layer? They will be covered by BLACK solder mask ink according to your GTS layer.


Thank You for the Help.

[Milen]

Hi,
There is something wrong in the data.
You can try to order direct following this link:
https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/Arduin...
Until now I did not have any problems with this board, but what I see in their picture is something what is not OK. Cancel this order.

[Milen]

I checked also the files there. They also contain this problem. I will modify the flies and upload again the gerber files.

[Milen]

OK. Please read the update on step 3.

[wphillips7]

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty certain you can feed DC into the Nano via the Vin pin if you hook up a suitable jack to it, it doesn't have to be 5v only. I'm running 9v into it via Vin and the adjacent GND pin.

[Milen]

You are right - you can supply the nano through the adapter board DC jack with voltage till 12V. It appears at Vin pin ( reduced with one diode voltage drop). The 5V are created by the nano's voltage regulator and appear at 5V pins of the arduino and the adapter board.

[thereminhero]

This has the added advantage of being able to adapt full size shields into nanos, potentially a great space saver for making a thinner "sandwich". Great work.

[Milen]

Thank you.

[MoonBoy5]

Thank you so much for creating this!

one way to fix the problem of fitting more shields on is to increase the length of the I/O pin headers.

I only have the Nano currently and if possible i will try and post a project with your shield in it.

[KushagraK7]

Now Arduino Nano's too got a shield!

[jerrymonkey123]

smart idea for people that only have nano

[rutcorn]

Hi, to avoid having to use longer pins for shields, you could try using round header connectors for mounting the arduino. They are much lower than the square ones. I'm not completely sure, but there's a good chance the shield could go flush to the connector without touching the arduino.

[Milen]

Hi,
I had also this idea. I did not try because I did not have suitable ones.
I wanted to try using 1.27mm pitch headers, which are lower, but the soldering of the mail pin headers should be complicated. Which of the three approaches should be used - I leave the decision on the readers.