/diy/ - Do It Yourself

What's the difference between a voltage regulator and a voltage converter? As I understand it, a voltage regulator takes some input voltage and attempts to stabilize it to a fixed output voltage - how does that differ from a voltage converter, or a boost converter?

Is there any significant difference between the Arduino Nano and Nano Every apart from the Every being more powerful and also cheaper? Is there really no downside?

I want to make some things with microcontrollers similar to an arduino, but smaller and cheaper so I can make a bunch of them, but I have no idea where to start. I know arduinos use an ATmega chip for the "brains" of it and if i'm understanding correctly that's most of what I need. I don't need a lot of headers or reset buttons buttons or LEDs or whatnot that come on them. Is something like this even feasible or is it too much to ask? Even the cheapest Arduino I can find is somewhere around $10, which adds up.