BEAPER Nano – the all-in-one beginner Arduino Nano ESP32 circuit

BEAPER (Beginner Electronics And Programming Educational Robot) Nano harnesses the power of the versatile new Arduino® Nano ESP32 to help you learn or teach microcontroller programming. It’s designed to take you from learning how to program simple beginner circuits all the way to building robots and creating advanced IoT devices, using either Arduino C/C++ coding, ESP32 C/C++ coding, or MicroPython!

BEAPER Nano hardware

BEAPER Nano is designed to be a modular, easy to assemble through-hole circuit that anyone can use to start learning about microcontroller circuits and programming.

BEAPER Nano contains all of the circuitry that beginners need to get started, plus loads of features and expansion capabilities to challenge new learners as they progress and develop their programming skills!

Labelled image of the major sets of BEAPER Nano components.
BEAPER Nano schematic thumbnail. Click to download the PDF schematic.

Download the BEAPER Nano schematic.

BEAPER Nano assembly instructions.

Find all of the BEAPER Nano parts.

BEAPER Nano programming and software

The Arduino Nano ESP32 microcontroller used by BEAPER Nano can be programmed in C/C++ using the Arduino IDE just like a traditional Arduino circuit, or as a native ESP32 circuit using the Arduino IDE or other third-party IDEs.

Arduino Nano ESP32 can also be programmed in MicroPython using Arduino Lab for MicroPython, which provides a somewhat simpler syntax for beginners and higher-level functions than C/C++. Install the latest MicroPython image onto your Arduino Nano ESP32 using the Arduino Labs MicroPython installer.

Screenshot of the Arduino IDE with a BEAPER Nano test program open in the editing window and analog data begin returned in the serial monitor.

An Arduino C/C++ program in the Arduino IDE (above) and the equivalent MicroPython program in Arduino Lab for MicroPython (right). While the Arduino IDE and Arduino Lab for MicroPython are the recommended starter IDEs for beginners – and the ones that will be used for all of our tutorials – many other options are available for programming your BEAPER Nano.

BEAPER Nano Learning Activities

BEAPER resources and learning activities are available in our BEAPER Nano GitHub repository, with more coming soon.

Introductory learning activities:

  1. Input and output starter program

  2. Learning more about variables and constants

  3. Repeating actions using loops

  4. Creating and using functions

  5. Analog input and serial output

BEAPER Nano demo programs:

  1. BEAPER Nano I/O Test (C/C++)

  2. BEAPER Nano I/O Test (MicroPython)

  3. TFT Bar Graph display

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