Arduino Nano ATMega 328 with onboard OLED - Can't Detect Port - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2025, 10:04:14 pm
content: I bought a Arduino Nano ATMega 328 which has a tiny OLED on the backside.Unless I'm using the wrong cable, the Arduino software can't detect the board (the port isn't in the drop down menu and greyed out in an older version of Arduino software).The OLED displays words and performs a count of how many seconds the unit has been powered, so I believe the cable is correct - I'm using a USB to type C.I've tried various steps suggested such as a different USB port (tried it on two different machines), a different USB cable, unplugging and plugging, and pushing the reset button twice to enable the bootloader.What else should I try so I can tinker with this and write programs to it?

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2025, 10:21:42 pm
content: What operating system are you using? i'd first start by making sure the o/s is seeing the board,in linux the command lsusb fired from the terminal will show whats on the usb bus, no idea of the equivalent in windows or macs

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2025, 10:53:07 pm
content: It was a Win7 laptop, but performing your suggestion, it's not seeing anything on the USB.I plugged a thumbdrive in and Ubuntu saw that, but it's not seeing the Arduino.

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2025, 11:52:41 pm
content: Is it possible that you are using a charge only cable?It is handy to have a "DT3 USB cable tester" board for checking this... they are available for $1 to $10 depending on where you buy them.

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2025, 12:37:05 am
content: QuoteIt's completely possible.Since the Arduino powered, I assumed the cable was fine but maybe you're correct and it's a charge only.Since I'm new to the Arduino world, figured I'd check on whether it could be a bootloader issue or whatever causing it now to be seen.

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2025, 01:09:20 am
content: Quote from: bostonman on April 17, 2025, 12:37:05 amThe symptoms of a bootloader issue would be different - you'd see the USB port, but not be able to upload your sketch.Is it a CH340 based board, and if so, did you install the CH340 driver?

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2025, 01:10:47 am
content: Quote from: themadhippy on April 16, 2025, 10:21:42 pmIn Windows, it's USBDeview:https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2025, 01:24:22 am
content: QuoteYes, tried that last night.Believe it was already installed anyway from a previous Arduino Nano board.

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 18, 2025, 07:29:31 pm
content: Forgot that I also purchased a bare bones Nano (i.e. no onboard OLED display) and tried the same cable. The LED on the Nano lit, but no beep when I plugged in, not detected in the Arduino IDE (?), etc...I got a type-c from Walmart based on the possibility of the cables I have being just charge only. Upon trying the new cable, I heard a beep when I plugged in indicating it's not seeing the Nano, however, it's still not recognized.I downloaded/installed the driver again, but it's not showing in the Arduino IDE nor the USBDeview program even though Windows beeps when I plug it in.The board has a blinking LED, so I'm guessing it's been loaded with the 'blink' example circuit which tells me the board is "alive". The chip next to the connector doesn't have a part number on it. Maybe it's some generic comm chip that's not part of the standard driver (the drop down menu is automatically showing a CH341ser.inf without any other options.Until now, I was unaware cables can be "charge" only. These cables were brand new and being tossed at my old job. Usually when I see such cables, they are thrown away from the IT department as unneeded spares, so I grab them for future needs.Unfortunately this doesn't solve the IDE not seeing the Nano.Update: forgot to mention, in the Device Manager, it seems to be showing as: FT232R USB UART

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 18, 2025, 08:35:41 pm
content: Quote from: bostonman on April 18, 2025, 07:29:31 pmOK, that's likely to be your problem. Your device has an FT232 clone (not a CH341), but the official FTDI drivers won't work with it.The fix is to install an older driver version.Here's more info:https://rlogiacco.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/win-10-ftdigate-solved/

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 19, 2025, 03:55:51 am
content: Wow, this is interesting.Apparently I have some clone or whatever. I've made a few errors with my recent purchase from Aliexpress. I ordered a OLED display (for reasons not worth getting into) and thought I could parlay my order with some Nano boards.The Nano portion order was a few variations, and, since many wouldn't allow me to order more than one, I ordered from separate posts. The first one was the onboard OLED, the second was a bare bones Nano, and the third was two (what I thought were) Nano with those screw type terminals and a socket for prototyping or whatever.What I received was the OLED, this bare bones Nano with the clone chip, and two bare PCBs with a socket and the wire terminals.The wire terminal bare bone PCBs are useless to me since the Nano wasn't included. The Nano with the onboard OLED now communicates normally with the cable I bought from Walmart (thanks for the feedback from everyone), and the bare bones nano has the old/generic chip.After reading the link provided, it seems not worth downloading old drivers to try getting this board to work. Maybe I didn't read deep enough, but seems the trouble of installing an outdated driver isn't worth it.As for the one with the OLED, does anyone know if the program on it is one from the Arduino IDE examples? If so, which one? The display I see when powered reads: Boot Time: [number in seconds], UART baud 9600, Waiting for AT......, and Nano 328 v3 0.91 OLED.If I program this with something else, I would like to know which program is currently on here so I can revert to this one if I desire.

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 24, 2025, 02:23:09 am
content: I've tinkered with this board (the Nano with the onboard OLED). These are being sold on Amazon (I got mine through Aliexpress) and the ads include directions along with a sample program, so I copied the information.Everything commented out are lines I eliminated one at a time to see if any were not needed. If I understand correctly, apparently spi.h and wire.h are not being used, but then how is the display connected if not by spi or wires? I guess, what exactly does this mean?Also, apparently I didn't need to clear the buffer since it's commented out but the display is still working correctly, and don't understand what delay(1000) is providing since changing and commenting it out didn't do anything. It's suppose to "pause" for one-second before the loop restarts, but I changed it to 10,000 and it didn't change the display; I expected a blank screen and then text again after ten-seconds.#include <Arduino.h>#include <U8g2lib.h>//#ifdef U8X8_HAVE_HW_SPI//#include <SPI.h>//#endif//#ifdef U8X8_HAVE_HW_I2C//#include <Wire.h>//#endifU8G2_SSD1306_128X32_UNIVISION_F_SW_I2C u8g2(U8G2_R0, A5, A4, U8X8_PIN_NONE);void setup (void) {u8g2.begin();}void loop (void) {//u8g2.clearBuffer();u8g2.setFont(u8g2_font_ncenB08_tr);u8g2.drawStr(0,10,"Hello World");u8g2.sendBuffer();//delay(1000);}

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 01, 2025, 01:09:56 am
content: I forgot to update my last message.Upon tinkering further, I understand a bit more about this code and the delay makes more sense. If I set delay to something really high, it hangs the micro, too small and I make the micro work harder for no reason.