Arduino Pro Mini vs Nano – A Comprehensive Comparison

The Arduino board is one of the most popular microcontrollers due to its versatility. Often, many people opt for the Arduino Uno, but where fitting in a small size is necessary, this version is not feasible. Instead, Arduino Pro Mini vs Nano is a handy alternative. 

We’ll explore the features of these two at length.   

Pin Descriptions of Arduino pro mini vs. nano

Fig 1: A car robot toy made using an Arduino board

Arduino Pro Mini Pinout

The microcontroller features 14 digital input/output pins whose functions are as follows: 

  1. Pin 0 and Pin 1 are UART pins/ serial pins for serial communication or receiving and transmitting TTL serial data, respectively. 
  2. Next, we have Pin 2 and 3 that function as external interrupts. Triggering these pins prompts an interrupt. 
  3. We have Pins 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11. You use these pins with the analogWrite function to give an 8-bit PWM output. 
  4. Also, there is Pin 10 (Slave Select), Pin 11 (Master Output/ Slave Input), Pin 12 (Master Input/ Slave Output), and Pin 13 (Serial Clock). These are imperative in supporting SPI communication. 
  5. Further, we have Pin 13, which features a built-in LED. The LED goes on when the pin is high and off when the pin is low. 
  6. In addition, there’s Pin I2C which enables I2C communication. 
  7. Moreover, we have the Data Terminal Ready (DTR) pin for resetting the board and inputting the bootloader for the Arduino pro mini programming. 
  8. Lastly, there’s a RESET pin for setting the microcontroller. 

Arduino Nano Pinout

What are the Differences between Arduino Pro Mini vs Nano?

Fig 2: Both boards are useful in DIY projects

Which Arduino Board is Better?

Fig 3: An Arduino board sketch

Both boards run on Arduino software and thus can perform in equal measure. However, the Nano is better for applications requiring fitting in a solderless breadboard since it’s small and has other additional features.

Moreover, the NANO has superior RAM to the Micro version. But, for less advanced projects, you can settle for the pro mini. 

Conclusion

The above boards are useful for advanced users and simple DIY projects. We hope that we have explicitly covered the two modules. However, for further queries, communicate with us. 

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