Choosing an Arduino for Your Project

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Contributors: jimblom, bboyho
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More Power!

Need some extra "beef" in your Arduino? Need more I/O pins, or a faster processor? That's where Arduino's like the Mega or the Due come into the picture.

Arduino Mega: The Souped Up Uno

The Arduino Mega is what you might get if you packed four Arduino Uno's into one board. There are 54 I/O pins, instead of the 14 an Uno gives you. That's a whole lot of extra LEDs! Instead of one hardware serial port, there are four. And the Mega sports a whopping 256 kB of flash program space. Not to mention 16 analog inputs, and 14 PWM outputs. The Mega just has more of everything.

Arduino Mega 2560 R3

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$48.40

The brain of the Mega is an ATmega2560, a fully souped up ATmega328. Aside from the massive processor overhaul, the Mega still shares a lot in common with the Arduino Uno. There's a secondary IC on-board (an ATmega16U2) to convert USB-to-serial to allow USB programming. It runs at the same speed -- 16 MHz. All of the pins are broken out in a way that keeps the board shield-compatible. Because of these similarities, the Mega is a good option for Arduino beginners and experts alike.

If your Arduino project is hitting a wall because you don't have enough I/O, or if you're running out of program space, consider stepping up to the Mega.

Arduino Due: Arduino Harder

You thought the Mega was powerful? The Arduino Due is a revolutionary take on the Arduino platform. It sports an entirely different processor architecture -- ARM instead of AVR. It's a 32-bit processor, clocks in at 84 MHz, and has native USB support.

Arduino Due

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Retired

This thing sports many unique features that other boards don't have. Stuff like:

  • Two digital-to-analog converters (DACs), which allow the board to output true analog values (instead of PWM). This means you can play audio out it!
  • USB on-the-go (OTG) capability allows the Due to act as both a USB device and a host. So you can hook up other USB devices -- like flash drives, WiFi modules, or phones -- to the Due.
  • Direct Memory Access (DMA) allows the microcontroller to offload memory-access tasks, so it can perform other operations at the same time.

There are also some new things to watch out for. The Due's processor -- an ATSAM3X8E -- can't work at 5V, so the board only runs at 3.3V This means it may not be compatible with all shields.

The Due has some amazing functionality, but it's also a more advanced board. It's not recommended for beginners, but if you have a project that might take advantage of the Due's unique characteristics, check it out!

Teensy

The Teensy line is a collection of microcontrollers from PJRC, based around several different powerful ICs. There is an option to use a Teensy with Arduino IDE if you install the Teensyduino add-on.

Teensy++2.0

The 8-bit Teensy++ 2.0 runs at 5V/16MHz and breaks out all of the I/O available on the AT90USB1286 to breadboard friendly 0.1" spaced headers. The development board has 127kB of flash memory available for programming. There 46 digital I/O pins available with 8 analog inputs and 9 PWM outputs.

Teensy++ 2.0

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Retired

To program, you would simply install the Teensyduino add-on for the Arduino IDE and upload via USB.

Teensy LC

The 32-bit Teensy LC runs at 3.3V/48MHz (with the exception of pin 17 which can output 5V for addressable LED strips). This board also makes the I/O available to breadboard friendly 0.1' spaced headers. The development board has 62kB of flash memory available for programming. There are 27 I/O pins available with 13 analog inputs, and 10 PWM pins.

Teensy LC

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Retired

To program, you would simply install the Teensyduino add-on for the Arduino IDE and upload via USB.

Teensy 3.2

The 32-bit Teensy LC runs at 3.3V/72MHz but the I/O pins are 5V tolerant. This board also makes the I/O available to breadboard friendly 0.1' spaced headers. The development board has 256kB of flash memory available for programming. There are 34 I/O pins available with 21 analog inputs, and 12 PWM pins.

Teensy 3.2

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Retired

To program, you would simply install the Teensyduino add-on for the Arduino IDE and upload via USB.

Arduino MKR Vidor 4000

The MKR Vidor 4000 is the first ever Arduino based on an FPGA chip with a SAMD21 microcontroller. It includes a WiFi, BLE, MIPI camera connector, micro HDMI, mini PCI express connector, I2C connector, LiPo Connector, and USB port. The board can perform high-speed digital audio and video processing.

Arduino MKR Vidor 4000

Arduino MKR Vidor 4000

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Retired

The board operates at 3.3V and can be programmed with a USB cable.