https://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Burn-a-Bootloader-to-Clone-Arduino-Nano-30/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYLjDQKnapo

I have recently purchased an Arduino Nano 3.0 Clone which came without a bootloader. I am sure there are many other people who are in the same situation as me, and may have freaked out a little bit at first ! Don't worry, in this instructable I will show you how to easily install a bootloader to your new clone.

let's see how it's done..>

ATTENTION - some clones are different. they don't have an ftdi chip, which may cause your computer to not see the arduino once plugged in with the usb. if this is the case, please follow these steps; https://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Burn-a-Boot... thanks to author Gegec for his help on noticing the problem and solving it as well :)

It is very easy to find a clone of any board on the internet. Or you can at worst make yourself one…

They are extremely cheap, I have seen pinless nano boards as low as $5 online. You just have to do some work on your end, which is a very fair give and take if you ask me.

I don't want to advertise any names here, if you just search the board that you want with the word clone next to it, you will find some. Mine is called Funduino Nano, which is an open source company apparently just making amazing products at real fair prices..

Look how small an arduino nano is, it's the size of my pinky finger. This will help me tremendously in my new projects, huge improvements on size!

Plug it to the computer with the USB cable.

Make sure it turns on, and yes it did.! So far we are safe.

Now try to upload the blink sketch to it using the Arduino software on your computer. (file>examples>basics>blink)

You will most likely get the error in the second picture. This has nothing to do with the code being right/wrong. It just simply means that your computer and the board aren't communicating correctly, in our case the lack of the bootloader prevents us from doing so.

If your clone did work with the sketch upload, then even better.! you found one that is pre-installed. just start using it…

If you get the error message, keep on reading..>