The Arduino Nano R4 is a compact yet powerful development board designed to bridge the gap between rapid prototyping and real-world deployment. Built around the Renesas RA4M1 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller, this board offers significant performance improvements over its predecessors while maintaining compatibility with the Nano family pinout. It enables developers to transition smoothly from the popular UNO R4-based designs to compact production-ready solutions with minimal code changes.
With a small 45 x 18mm footprint, castellated edges for SMD soldering, and a single-sided component layout, the Nano R4 is optimized for custom hardware designs and embedded applications. It also includes a built-in Qwiic connector for seamless I2C peripheral integration and a programmable RGB LED for status indication, making it ideal for space-constrained environments such as industrial systems, home automation, and compact robotics.
Arduino Nano R4 Specifications:
The Arduino Nano R4 is powered by the Renesas RA4M1 microcontroller, featuring a 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 core running at 48 MHz. It comes equipped with 256kB of Flash memory, 32kB of RAM, and 8kB of EEPROM, providing sufficient storage for embedded applications. The board offers 21 digital I/O pins, including 6 PWM outputs, and 8 analog input pins, along with a single DAC for analog signal generation. For communication, it supports one UART, two I2C buses, one SPI interface, and one CAN bus, ensuring flexible connectivity options. It operates at a 5V logic level and accepts input voltages ranging from 6V to 21V through the VIN pin. Each I/O pin can supply up to 8mA of current. The board features a USB-C connector for programming and measures just 45mm in length and 18mm in width, making it suitable for compact hardware designs.
The Nano R4 is fully compatible with the Arduino IDE and supports existing libraries developed for the UNO R4 Minima. Developers benefit from the extensive Arduino ecosystem, including libraries, examples, community support, and tutorials, making it easy to build and deploy connected embedded systems.
The Arduino Nano R4 comes in two variants: with headers for $13.30 and without headers for $12.10. Both offer the same features, making them ideal for compact, production-ready embedded applications.
Images used courtesy of Arduino.
Niladri Chowdhury