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Pro Micro nRF52840

Support for Pro Micro nRF52840-compatible development boards

Overview

Pro Micro nRF52840 boards are Arduino Pro Micro-compatible development boards based on the nRF52840 SoC. This is a generic board definition that supports multiple variants with compatible pinouts. There are many variants available, including:

  • Compatible:

    • Nice!Nano V2 (official, open-source)
    • SuperMini nRF52840
    • ProMicro nRF52840
    • Mikoto
    • 52840nano (more GPIO)
  • Similar:

    • nRFMicro
    • BlueMicro

All these boards are largely the same in terms of functionality. They vary slightly in pinouts, LED colors, battery charging capabilities and antenna design. Though the board definition is generic, it follows the most common pinout of the Nice!Nano V2.

This board definition is frequently used for building battery-powered custom wireless keyboards. A comprehensive overview of various compatible variants, including their specific features and known issues, can be found at NRF Micro Wiki - Alternatives.

Hardware

The board is pin-compatible with the Arduino Pro Micro and features:

  • nRF52840 SoC with ARM Cortex-M4F CPU
  • 1 MiB Flash, 256 KiB RAM
  • Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0
  • USB-C connector with USB device support (some variants use USB Micro)
  • Single board-provided LED (color varies by variant: blue, red, or green)
  • Arduino Pro Micro form factor

Pin Layout

The board follows the Pro Micro pinout. The following tables show the complete pin mapping:

Complete Pin Mapping

nRF52840 PinArduino PinFunctionNotes
P0.08D0UART RXSerial receive
P0.06D1UART TXSerial transmit
P0.17D2I2C SDAI2C0 data line
P0.20D3I2C SCLI2C0 clock
P0.22D4GPIO
P0.24D5GPIO
P1.00D6GPIO
P0.11D7GPIO
P1.04D8GPIO
P1.06D9GPIO
P0.09D10GPIO
-D11-Not available
-D12-Not available
P0.15D13GPIOLED
P1.11D14SPI MISOSPI0 MISO
P1.13D15SPI SCKSPI0 SCK
P0.10D16SPI MOSISPI0 MOSI
-D17-Not available
P1.15D18GPIO
P0.02D19GPIO
P0.29D20GPIO
P0.31D21GPIO

Primary Peripherals

PeripheralnRF52840 PinsArduino PinsDescription
UART (USB)Used for STDIO
UART (Serial)P0.08, P0.06D0, D1RX, TX
I2C0P0.17, P0.20D2, D3SDA, SCL
SPI0P0.10, P1.11, P1.13D16, D14, D15MOSI, MISO, SCK

The color of the LED may vary between board variants.

Flashing, Bootloader, and Terminal

The board uses the Adafruit nRF52 Bootloader. Refer to the Adafruit nRF52 Bootloader documentation for further details on the flashing process.

Example with hello-world application:

Terminal window
make BOARD=pro-micro-nrf52840 -C examples/basic/hello-world flash term

The terminal will connect to STDIO over USB (USB-CDC).