So I wondered what the difference between the nano and the nano every is and why the nano every is so much cheaper than the nano.
I'm new to the microcontroller business and I would like to know what would be better for what situation.
1 Answer
The classic Nano has ATmega 328p MCU, same as Uno. The 328p is classic AVR ATmega as used in Arduinos from the start and before in many AVR MCU projects for over 20 years now. There is large knowlege base for this MCUs, many ready codes in form of libraries, snippets, tutorials.
The Nano Every and Uno WiFi Rev 2 use a modern version of the AVR based MCU a so called megaAVR_0-series, an ATmega4809. It uses the same AVR CPU architecture in core of the MCU so the compiler is the same as for 328p and co., but the MCU peripherals configuration is very different then in the classic ATmegas. So the old knowledge base about AVR MCU peripherals doesn't help here.
The lower price is not related to manufacturing costs. The possible reasons are:
- better price by MCU manufacturer at introduction of the new MCU family to market
- higher price of classic Nano because it is popular and together with classic Uno founds Arduino as company
- getting the new chip to Arduino power users to build up the knowledge and code base for the new MCU
To mention some more differences of classic Nano and Nano Every: Nano uses a bootloader for sketch upload and an external USB chip for USB communication. Nano Every doesn't use a bootloader, it has an on board UPDI programmer in form of a small SAMD MCU which serves as USB adapter for serial communication too.
