Electronics Weekly Electronics Design & Components Tech News
The nRF52840 IC (via a u-blox NINA-B306 module) stays the same, and still provides both an Arm Cortex-M4 processor and a Bluetooth transceiver – to go with these is an Arduino BLE library, and MicroPython.
Probably the biggest hardware change is that the six-axis IMU and three-axis magnetometer are no longer provided by a single LSM9DS1 from STMicroelectronics, but now come courtesy of a pair of Bosch Sensortec ICs: the six-axis BMI270 IMU and the three-axis BMM150 magnetometer.
Replacement IMU and magnetometer libraries have been provided, allowing existing sketches to be migrated to rev 2 hardware.
On the Nano 33 BLE, other changes include:
- Pads and test points for USB, SWDIO, and SWCLK.
- VUSB soldering jumper on the top side, allowing the VUSB pin to be enabled while using the castellated edge contacts.
- An MP2322 is used as the on-board dc-dc converter (was MPM3610)
“Nano 33 BLE is one of our most popular boards,” according to Arduino. “It’s small and 3.3V-compatible, it comes with an embedded IMU featuring accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer, it has a powerful processor, [and] a Bluetooth Low Energy module with an internal antenna.”
The Nano 33 BLE Sense (Rev2 in photo) has the same 9-axis swap for Revision 2, and some changes in its other sensors:
- The microphone was a MP34DT05 (ST) and is now a MP34DT06JTR (ST) in rev 2.
- Gesture, light and proximity continue to be sensed by a APDS9960 (Avago), and barometric pressure by a LPS22HB (ST).
- Temperature and humidity were via a HTS221 (ST), which has turned into a HS3003 (Renesas).
Security
Although not often trumpeted, these products, in original and rev 2 form, include a credible level of security as the processor has Arm’s TrustZone Cryptocell 310 cryptographic accelerator, plus Sense versions include a Microchip ATECC608A authenticator IC that has a cryptographic co-processor with key storage.
Product pages:
And there is a Rev1 to Rev2 migration information page for both of the above
