First of all, Why Arduino Mega 2560?

When cheaper boards are available, why go with Arduino Mega? The main reason behind this is
the additional features that are inbuilt with this board. First feature is the large I/O system design
with inbuilt 16 analog transducers and 54 digital transducers that supports with USART and
other communication modes. Secondly, it has inbuilt RTC and other features like analog
comparator, advanced timer, interrupt for controller wakeup mechanism to save more power and
fast speed with 16 Mhz crystal clock to get 16 MIBS. It has more than 5 pins for Vcc and Gnd to
connect other devices to Arduino Mega.

Other features include JTAG support for programming, debugging and troubleshooting. With
large FLASH memory and SRAM, this board can handle large system program with ease. It is
also compatible with the different type of boards like high-level signal (5V) or low-level signal
(3.3V) with I/O ref pin.

Brownout and watchdog help to make the system more reliable and robust. It supports ICSP as
well as USB microcontroller programming with PC.

The Arduino Mega 2560 is a replacement of the old Arduino Mega, and so in general reference,
it will be called without the ‘2560’ extension. It is usually used for very complex projects.

Arduino Mega 2560 Specifications

Arduino Mega – Basic Features

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Arduino Mega Features
Microcontroller AVR ATmega 2560 (8bit)
Power Supply 7-12V (Inbuilt Regulator for Controller)
Digital I/O Pins 54
Analog I/O Pins 16
Total Digital I/O70 (Digital + Analog)
Clock Speed 16 MHz (Factory set to 1Mhz)
Flash Memory 128 KB
SRAM 8 KB
USB (Programming with ATmega 8), ICSP (programming), SPI, I2C and
Communication
USART
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Arduino Mega – Advanced Features

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Arduino Mega Advanced Features
Timer 2 (8bit) + 4 (16bit) = 6 timer
PWM 12 (2-16 bit)
ADC 16 (10 bit)
USART 4
Pin Change Interrupt 24
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Arduino Mega 2560 is also packed with additional features like Analog Comparator, External
Interrupt & Software Interrupt, Power Saving Mode, Inbuilt Temperature Sensor, RTC and more.

Arduino Mega Pinout

Arduino Mega Pinout

Power pins :
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Arduino Mega Power Pins
VIN Supply voltage (7-12V)
GND Ground
5V Supply For External hardware device power supply
3.3V Supply For External low voltage hardware device power supply
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Arduino Mega Pin Diagram

Arduino Mega Pin Configuration

Controller Pins:

RESET: (Reset input) A low level on this pin for longer than the 4 clock cycle will generate a
reset. Arduino Mega has inbuilt reset circuit with push button to reset system and this pin can be
used by other devices to reset controller.

XTAL1,XTAL2: Crystal (16Mhz) is connected to supply clock for controller with 2 bypass
capacitor to ground.

AREF: This pin is used, when we use Adc for analog to digital conversion with external
reference voltage for conversion and don’t want to use internal 1.1V or 5v reference.

Digital pins (70):

Digital pins (0-53) + Analog (0-15) = Total Digital I/O pins.

Digital Pins: From 0-53(digital) and 0-15(analog) can be use as input or output for digital
transducer and output devices by pinMode() for pin direction, digtalWrite() to write pin and
digitalRead() to read pin status.

Application:

Output devices : Relay, LED, buzzer, LCD and others.

Input devices: digital thermistor, push button, ultrasonic sensor, joystick and others

Example:

 Output low signal on Arduino mega board

pinMode(0,OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(0,LOW);

 Input read signal on Arduino mega board

pinMode(0,INPUT);

digitalRead(0);

Analog Pins (16):

Analog pins: From 0-15(analog) can be used as analog input pin for adc, if not used than it work
as normal digital pin. It can be used by pinMode() for pin direction, analogRead() to read pin
status and get digital value for analog signal, care must be taken for internal or external reference
voltage selection and Aref pin.

Application :

Input devices: Ntc thermistor, sensors (like ldr, irled and humidity) and others

Example :

 INPUT analog signal on Arduino mega board

pinMode(0,INPUT);

analogRead(0);

Alternative Pins Function:

SPI Pins:

Pin 22 - SS, Pin 23 - SCK, Pin 24 - MOSI, Pin 25 – MISO

These pins are used for serial communication with SPI protocol for communication between 2 or
more devices. SPI enable bit must be set to start communication with other devices.

Application:

Programming AVR controller, communication with others peripheral like LCD and SD card with
four-line communication at high speed.

I2C Pins:

Digital pin 20 for SDA and 21 for SCK (Speed 400khz) to enable two wire communication with
others devices. Function used are [Link]() to start I2C conversion, with [Link]() to read
i2c data and [Link]() to write i2c data.

Application:

Output devices : LCD and communication between multiple devices with two wire.

Input devices : rtc and others.

Example:

I2c master read data from slave

[Link]();
[Link](2, 1); //1byte data

[Link]();

PWM Pins:

Digital pin 2-13 can be used as PWM output with analogWrite() to write pwm value from 0-
[Link]’s alternative of DAC for low cost system to get analog signal at output by using filter.

Application:

Output devices: speed control of motor, light dimmer, pid for efficient control system.

Example:

 OUTPUT analog signal on Arduino mega board

pinMode(0,OUTPUT);

analogWrite(0,255);

USART Pins :

Pin 0 – RXD0, pin 1 – TXD0

Pin 19 – RXD1, pin 18 – TXD1

Pin 17 – RXD2, pin 16 – TXD2

Pin 15 – RXD3, pin 14 – TXD3

This pin is used for serial usart communication with pc or other system for data sharing and
logging. It is used with serialBegin() to set baud rate setting and start communication with
[Link]() to print array of char on other device output.

Application:

Two controller communication, pc and controller communication, debugging with usart by serial
monitor.

Example:

[Link](9600);

[Link](“hello”);

Pinchange Interrupt Pins:

Digital Pin 0,22,23,24,25,10,11,12,13,15,14

Analog Pin 6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15

This pin is used for pin change interrupt. Enable bit of pinchange interrupt must be set with
global interrupt enable.

Application :

Rotary encoder, push button based interrupt and others.

Example :

pinMode(0, OUTPUT);

pinMode(1, INPUT_PULLUP);

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(1), LOW, CHANGE);

Hardware Interrupt Pins :

Digital pin 18 – 21,2,3 hardware interrupt is used for interrupt services. Hardware interrupt must
be enabled with global interrupt enable to get interrupt from other devices.

Application:

Push button for ISR program, wake up controller with external devices, sensors like ultrasonic
and others.

Example:

pinMode(0, OUTPUT);

pinMode(1, INPUT_PULLUP);

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(1), LOW, LOW);

Arduino Mega Schematic Components:

DC Jack Power Supply :

External Supply for Arduino Mega from range 7-12 volt is given with this port. Arduino Mega
R3 has a voltage regulator for 5v and 3.3v supply for Arduino controller and sensor supply.

AVR 2560 :
This is the main controller used to program and run task for the system. This is the brain of the
system to control all other devices on board.

ATmega8 :

This controller is used for communication between the main controller and other devices. This
controller is programmed for USB communication and serial programming features.

ICSP 1 (ATmega8) and 2 (AVR 2560):

It has features of programming using serial bus with AVR programmer using SPI
communication. AVR 2560 is programmed to run the system and ATmega 8 is programmed for
serial communication and programming.

Arduino Mega ICSP Pinout for ATmega 2560

Reset :

It has reset circuit with capacitor, button and resistor to reset the controller. A push button is used
to get 4 cycle low signal on reset pin to get the controller in reset mode.
Crystal :

It has a crystal circuit with two capacitors and one 16 Mhz crystal for xtal pins 1 and 2
interfacing with avr 2560.

I2C :

It has features of I2C (two wire communication) with an external pull-up resistor.

USART :

It has TXD and RXD pin for serial communication with LED indicator.

Some Simple Programs to try on Arduino Mega 2560

Program 1: Blinking LED (Digital pin)

/*

Turns on an LED on for two second, then off for two second on pin 13,
repeatedly.

*/

// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board

void setup() {

// initialize digital pin 13 as an output.

pinMode(13, OUTPUT);

// the loop function runs again and again

void loop() {

digitalWrite(13, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)

delay(2000); // wait for two second

digitalWrite(13, LOW); // turn the LED off

delay(2000); // wait for two second

Program 2: Led Light Dimmer (PWM):

int brightness = 0; //pwm value

void setup()

pinMode(3, OUTPUT);

void loop()

analogWrite(3, brightness); // pwm write on pin 3

++brightness; // brightness is incremented by 1

if (brightness <= 0 || brightness >= 255) {

brightness=0; // brightness limited to 0-255

delay(10);

Program 3: Analog Read Voltage (Analog pin with USART) :

void setup()

[Link](9600); // usart communication start function with baudrate set

to 9600

void loop()

int sensorValue = analogRead(A0); // analog pin 0 data is read and converted

into digital value stored in sensorValue.

[Link](sensorValue); // usart to output sensor value on serial monitor