Arduino’s Nano 33 BLE quickly became evergreen due to the compact form factor and the high performance of its Nordic Semiconductor CPU. With the Arduino Nano 33 BLE Rev2, Arduino performs a mid-lifecycle refresh to fit the BOM to the current market situation.

First things first: due to the incredible popularity of Arduino’s Nano 33 BLE, the physical form factor of the board was not changed. Circuits based on an Arduino’s Nano 33 BLE can thus be upgraded to the later variant without changes.Furthermore, the Nordic Semiconductor NRF CPU was not touched. It has a maximum clock frequency of 64 MHz and has a significant amount of remanent and random access memory for program and variable storage. This continuity means most sketches are portable between the two boards with minimal effort.

Small adjustments for better manufacturability

Arduino’s Nano 33 BLE always came with a nine-axis IMU permitting advanced sensing of environmental conditions. The original board used an LSM9DS1 integrated circuit to realize this functionality. On the new model, Arduino decided to split it into a BMI270 and a BMM150. This two-chip approach requires slight modifications to programs being ported from the first-generation to the second-generation PCB. However, the Arduino core acts as a hardware abstraction layer similar to the one outlined in the flowchart.

As the Arduino developer team took care to keep the API surface of the IMU drivers identical, not much work is required - by the porting documentation found under https://support.arduino.cc/hc/en-us/articles/11729186296476-Use-the-new-sensor-libraries-for-Nano-33-BLE-Rev2-and-Nano-BLE-Sense-Rev2, the include statement #include <Arduino_LSM9DS1.h> has to be replaced by #include <Arduino_BMI270_BMM150.h>. A similar change is required for the humidity sensor library, where the include #include <Arduino_HTS221.h> is to be replaced with #include <Arduino_HS300x.h>.

Furthermore, the power supply was upgraded to an MP2322 power management controller. Its thermal design has been improved, thereby increasing the reliability of the process computer in thermally challenging environments. Finally, a set of additional test points and solder bridges were added, adding functionality not found in the previous revision of the board.

Pricing and availability

Arduino currently provides two SKUs for the product. ABX00070 is a variant of the board that comes with the breadboard-friendly headers already soldered. 

The version without the pre-soldered headers sells for about three USD less and can be found via the SKU ABX00069.

Conclusion

If an Arduino-based solution requires a Bluetooth interface and computer power, the Arduino Nano 33 BLE Rev2 should be considered. Its comprehensive ecosystem support ensures the availability of various shields, adding external functions. The manufacturing optimizations furthermore secure the long-term availability of the board.