Arduino Mega 2560

Overview
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 Duemilanove or
Diecimila.
Schematic & Reference Design
EAGLE files: arduino-mega2560-reference-design.zip
Schematic: arduino-mega2560-schematic.pdf
Summary
Microcontroller ATmega2560
Operating Voltage 5V
Input Voltage (recommended) 7-12V
Input Voltage (limits) 6-20V
Digital I/O Pins 54 (of which 14 provide PWM output)
Analog Input Pins 16
DC Current per I/O Pin 40 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
Power
The Arduino Mega 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 be unstable. If using more than 12V, the voltage regulator may
overheat and damage
the board. The recommended range is 7 to 12 volts.
The Mega2560 differs from all preceding boards in that it does not use the FTDI USB-to-serial driver
chip. Instead, it
features the Atmega8U2 programmed as a USB-to-serial converter.
The power pins are as follows:
GND. Ground pins.
Memory
The ATmega2560 has 256 KB of flash memory for storing code (of which 8 KB is used for the bootloader),
8 KB of SRAM and 4 KB of EEPROM (which can be read and written with the EEPROM library).
Input and Output
Each of the 54 digital pins on the Mega can be used as an input or output, using pinMode(), digitalWrite(),
and
digitalRead() functions. They operate at 5 volts. Each pin can provide or receive a maximum of 40 mA and
has an internal
pull-up resistor (disconnected by default) of 20-50 kOhms. In addition, some pins have specialized
functions:
2
C (TWI) communication using the Wire library (documentation on the
Wiring website). Note that these pins are not in the same location as the I
2
C pins on the Duemilanove or Diecimila.
The Mega2560 has 16 analog inputs, each of which provide 10 bits of resolution (i.e. 1024 different
values). By default they measure from ground to 5 volts, though is it possible to change the upper end of
their range using the AREF pin and
analogReference() function.
VIN. The input voltage to the Arduino board when it's using an external power source (as opposed to 5
volts from the
USB connection or other regulated power source). You can supply voltage through this pin, or, if
supplying voltage via
the power jack, access it through this pin.
5V. The regulated power supply used to power the microcontroller and other components on the board.
This can come
either from VIN via an on-board regulator, or be supplied by USB or another regulated 5V supply.
Serial: 0 (RX) and 1 (TX); Serial 1: 19 (RX) and 18 (TX); Serial 2: 17 (RX) and 16 (TX); Serial 3: 15
(RX) and 14 (TX). Used to receive (RX) and transmit (TX) TTL serial data. Pins 0 and 1 are also connected
to the
corresponding pins of the ATmega8U2 USB-to-TTL Serial chip.
External Interrupts: 2 (interrupt 0), 3 (interrupt 1), 18 (interrupt 5), 19 (interrupt 4), 20 (interrupt
3), and 21 (interrupt 2). These pins can be configured to trigger an interrupt on a low value, a rising or
falling edge, or a change in value. See the attachInterrupt() function for details.
SPI: 50 (MISO), 51 (MOSI), 52 (SCK), 53 (SS). These pins support SPI communication using the SPI
library.
The SPI pins are also broken out on the ICSP header, which is physically compatible with the Uno,
Duemilanove and
Diecimila.
LED: 13. There is a built-in LED connected to digital pin 13. When the pin is HIGH value, the LED is
on, when the pin is LOW, it's off.
3V3. A 3.3 volt supply generated by the on-board regulator. Maximum current draw is 50 mA.
PWM: 0 to 13. Provide 8-bit PWM output with the analogWrite() function.
I
2
C: 20 (SDA) and 21 (SCL). Support I
There are a couple of other pins on the board:
Reset. Bring this line LOW to reset the microcontroller. Typically used to add a reset button to shields
which block
the one on the board.
Communication
The Arduino Mega2560 has a number of facilities for communicating with a computer, another Arduino,
or other
microcontrollers. The ATmega2560 provides four hardware UARTs for TTL (5V) serial communication.
An ATmega8U2 on the board channels one of these over USB and provides a virtual com port to software
on the computer (Windows
machines will need a .inf file, but OSX and Linux machines will recognize the board as a COM port
automatically. The
Arduino software includes a serial monitor which allows simple textual data to be sent to and from the
board. The RX and
TX LEDs on the board will flash when data is being transmitted via the ATmega8U2 chip and USB
connection to the
computer (but not for serial communication on pins 0 and 1).
A SoftwareSerial library allows for serial communication on any of the Mega2560's digital pins.
The ATmega2560 also supports I2C (TWI) and SPI communication. The Arduino software includes a
Wire library to
simplify use of the I2C bus; see the documentation on the Wiring website for details. For SPI
communication, use the SPI
library.
Programming
The Arduino Mega can be programmed with the Arduino software (download). For details, see the
reference and tutorials.
The ATmega2560 on the Arduino Mega comes preburned with a bootloader that allows you to upload new
code to it
without the use of an external hardware programmer. It communicates using the original STK500
protocol (reference, C
header files).
You can also bypass the bootloader and program the microcontroller through the ICSP (In-Circuit Serial
Programming)
header; see these instructions for details.
The ATmega8U2 firmware source code is available in the Arduino repository. The ATmega8U2 is loaded
with a DFU
bootloader, which can be activated by connecting the solder jumper on the back of the board (near the
map of Italy) and
then resetting the 8U2. You can then use Atmel's FLIP software (Windows) or the DFU programmer (Mac
OS X and
Linux) to load a new firmware. Or you can use the ISP header with an external programmer (overwriting
the DFU
bootloader). See this user-contributed tutorial for more information.
Automatic (Software) Reset
Rather then requiring a physical press of the reset button before an upload, the Arduino Mega2560 is
designed in a way
that allows it to be reset by software running on a connected computer. One of the hardware flow control
lines (DTR) of the ATmega8U2 is connected to the reset line of the ATmega2560 via a 100 nanofarad
capacitor. When this line is
asserted (taken low), the reset line drops long enough to reset the chip. The Arduino software uses this
capability to allow
you to upload code by simply pressing the upload button in the Arduino environment. This means that the
bootloader can
AREF. Reference voltage for the analog inputs. Used with analogReference().
have a shorter timeout, as the lowering of DTR can be well-coordinated with the start of the upload.
This setup has other implications. When the Mega2560 is connected to either a computer running Mac OS
X or Linux, it
resets each time a connection is made to it from software (via USB). For the following half-second or so,
the bootloader is running on the Mega2560. While it is programmed to ignore malformed data (i.e.
anything besides an upload of new
code), it will intercept the first few bytes of data sent to the board after a connection is opened. If a sketch
running on the
board receives one-time configuration or other data when it first starts, make sure that the software with
which it
communicates waits a second after opening the connection and before sending this data.
The Mega2560 contains a trace that can be cut to disable the auto-reset. The pads on either side of the
trace can be soldered together to re-enable it. It's labeled "RESET-EN". You may also be able to disable
the auto-reset by connecting a
110 ohm resistor from 5V to the reset line; see this forum thread for details.
USB Overcurrent Protection
The Arduino Mega2560 has a resettable polyfuse that protects your computer's USB ports from shorts and
overcurrent.
Although most computers provide their own internal protection, the fuse provides an extra layer of
protection. If more
than 500 mA is applied to the USB port, the fuse will automatically break the connection until the short or
overload is
removed.
Physical Characteristics and Shield Compatibility
The maximum length and width of the Mega2560 PCB are 4 and 2.1 inches respectively, with the USB
connector and
power jack extending beyond the former dimension. Three screw holes allow the board to be attached to a
surface or case.
Note that the distance between digital pins 7 and 8 is 160 mil (0.16"), not an even multiple of the 100 mil
spacing of the
other pins.
The Mega2560 is designed to be compatible with most shields designed for the Uno, Diecimila or
Duemilanove. Digital pins 0 to 13 (and the adjacent AREF and GND pins), analog inputs 0 to 5, the power
header, and ICSP header are all in
equivalent locations. Further the main UART (serial port) is located on the same pins (0 and 1), as are
external interrupts
0 and 1 (pins 2 and 3 respectively). SPI is available through the ICSP header on both the Mega2560 and
Duemilanove /
Diecimila. Please note that I
2
C is not located on the same pins on the Mega (20 and 21) as the Duemilanove / Diecimila
(analog inputs 4 and 5).
RESET
AREF
AREF
RESET
Arduino TM Mega 2560 Reference Design Reference Designs ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "WITH ALL FAULTS".
Arduino DISCLAIMS ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING PRODUCTS, INCLUDING
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE
Arduino may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice. The Customer
must not rely on the absence or characteristics of any features or instructions marked "reserved" or "undefined."
Arduino reserves these for future definition and shall have no responsibility whatsoever for conflicts or
incompatibilities arising from future changes to them. The product information on the Web Site or Materials is subject
to change without notice. Do not finalize a design with this information.
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