The Arduino Mega is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega2560. 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. Never fear for accidental electrical discharge, either since since the Mega also includes a plastic base plate to protect it!
The Mega 2560 R3 also adds SDA and SCL pins next to the AREF. In addition, there are two new pins placed near the RESET pin. One is the IOREF that allow the shields to adapt to the voltage provided from the board. The other is a not connected and 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.
Arduino Mega 2560 Specification
- Microcontroller: ATmega2560
- Operating Voltage: 5V
- Input Voltage (recommended): 7-12V
- Input Voltage (limit) : 6-20V
- Digital I/O Pins: 54 (of which 15 provide PWM output)
- Analog Input Pins: 16
- DC Current per I/O Pin: 20 mA
- DC Current for 3.3V Pin: 50 mA+
- Flash Memory: 256 KB of which 8 KB used by bootloader
- SRAM: 8 KB
- EEPROM: 4 KB
- Clock Speed: 16 MHz
- LED_BUILTIN: 13
- Length: 101.52 mm
- Width : 53.3 mm
- Weight: 37 g
Schema
Powering Up Arduino Mega 2560
The Mega 2560 can be powered via the USB connection or with an external power supply. The power source is selected automatically.
External (non-USB) power can come either from an AC-to-DC adapter (wall-wart) or battery. The adapter can be connected by plugging a 2.1mm center-positive plug into the board's power jack. Leads from a battery can be inserted in the GND and Vin pin headers of the POWER connector.
The board can operate on an external supply of 6 to 20 volts. If supplied with less than 7V, however, the 5V pin may supply less than five volts and the board may become unstable. If using more than 12V, the voltage regulator may overheat and damage the board. The recommended range is 7 to 12 volts.
Arduino Mega 2560 Memory
The ATmega2560 has 256 KiB of flash memory for storing code (of which 8 KiB is used for the bootloader), 8 KB of SRAM and 4 KB of EEPROM.
