The Arduino Mega 2560 is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega2560 (datasheet). It has 54 digital input/output pins (of which 14 can be used as PWM outputs), 16 analog inputs, 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports), a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button.

 

It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started. The Mega is compatible with most shields designed for the Arduino Uno, Duemilanove or Diecimila. The Mega 2560 is an update to the Arduino Mega, which it replaces.

 

Additional features coming with the R3 version are the use of an ATmega16U2 instead of the 8U2 as USB-to-Serial converter. With the new 1.0 pinout two new pins where added: the SDA and SCL pins for TWI communication placed near to the AREF pin and two other new pins placed near to the RESET pin, the IOREF that allow the shields to adapt to the voltage provided from the board and the second one is a not connected pin, that is reserved for future purposes.

 

The Mega 2560 R3 works with all existing shields but can adapt to new shields which use these additional pins. If you want to give a closer look to this board we advice you to visit the official Arduino Mega 2560 page in the Hardware Section.

 

ATmega2560 microcontroller

Input voltage - 7-12V

54 Digital I/O Pins (14 PWM outputs)

16 Analog Inputs

16Mhz Clock Speed

4 serial ports

256k Flash Memory

8KB SRAM

4KB EEPROM