Arduino Mega Pinout | Arduino Mega 2560 Layout, Specifications (2024)

In this tutorial, we will have a brief overview about the Arduino Mega Board, the layout of a typical Mega board, some of the important specifications and finally the Arduino Mega Pinout.

I already discussed the Arduino UNO Pinout and Arduino Nano Pinout in the previous tutorials. If you are interested in those boards, then check out the tutorials.

Outline

Introduction

Since the introduction of Arduino UNO as a quick prototyping board, there has always been a demand for more features than what Arduino UNO can offer. The answer to this is the Arduino Mega Board.

While Arduino Nano is a breadboard friendly version of Arduino UNO with more or less the same features, Arduino Mega is completely a different board. It can be considered as a big brother to both UNO and Nano, both in terms of size as well as features.

Arduino Mega is based on ATmega2560 Microcontroller, an 8-bit AVR Architecture based MCU from ATMEL. It is available in a 100-pin Quad Flat Package.

It is designed and developed to provide more number of IO lines (both Digital and Analog), more flash memory and more RAM when compared to UNO.

So, if you are developing some advanced robotic projects or 3D Printing hardware and want to use the Arduino environment, then Arduino Mega 2560 is the board for you.

Arduino Mega Board Layout

The following image shows the layout of a typical Arduino Mega board. Unlike Arduino Nano, all the components are placed on the top side of the PCB.

As you can notice, there is a Type-B USB connector on the left short edge of the board, which is used for powering on the board as well as programming the Microcontroller. There is also a 2.1 mm DC jack to provide external power supply. Apart from that, the layout of Arduino Mega is very much self-explanatory.

I will discuss about the pins of Arduino Mega in the Arduino Mega Pinout Section.

Technical Specifications of Arduino Mega

As Arduino Mega is based on ATmega2560 Microcontroller, the technical specifications of Arduino Mega are mostly related to the ATmega2560 MCU. But none the less, let me give you a brief overview about some important technical specifications of Arduino Mega 2560.

MCU

ATmega2560
Architecture

AVR

Operating Voltage

5V
Input Voltage

6V – 20V (limit)

7V – 12V (recommended)

Clock Speed

16 MHz
Flash Memory

256 KB (8 KB of this used by bootloader)

SRAM

8 KB
EEPROM

4 KB

Digital IO Pins

54 (of which 15 can produce PWM)
Analog Input Pins

16

How to power up the Arduino Mega?

There are a couple of ways in which you can power the Mega board. The first and easy way is using the Type-B USB Connector. The next way is to provide an unregulated supply in the range of 6V to 20V to VIN pin of the Mega.

You can also supply the unregulated supply through the 2.1mm DC Jack, in which case, you can access the supplied voltage through the VIN Pin.

What are Different Memories of Arduino Mega?

Strictly speaking, this is specific to the MCU i.e., ATmega2560, used on the Arduino Mega Board. There are three different memories available in ATmega2560. They are:

  • 256 KB of Flash Memory
  • 8 KB of SRAM
  • 4 KB of EEPROM
  • 8 KB of the Flash Memory is used by the bootloader code.

What are the Input and Output Pins of Arduino Mega?

Of the 86 pins available on the Mega board, 72 pins are associated with input and output. In that 54 pins (D0 to D53) are true digital IO pins, which can be configured as per you application using pinMode(), digitalWrite() and digitalRead() functions.

All these Digital IO pins are capable of sourcing or sinking 20mA of current (maximum 40mA is allowed). An additional feature of the Digital IO pins is the availability of internal pull-up resistor (which is not connected by default). The value of the internal pull-up resistor will be in the range of 20KΩ to 50KΩ.

There are also 16 Analog Input Pins (A0 to A15). All the analog input pins provide a 10-bit resolution ADC feature, which can be read using analogRead() function.

An important point about Analog Input pins is that they can be configured as Digital IO pins, if required.

Digital IO pins 2 – 13 and 44 – 46 are capable of producing 8-bit PWM Signals. You can use analogWrite() function for this.

Communication Interfaces on Arduino Mega

Arduino Mega supports three different types of communication interfaces. They are:

  • Serial
  • I2C or I2C
  • SPI

Perhaps the most common communication interface in the Arduino universe is the Serial Communication. In fact, the Arduino boards (UNO or Nano or Mega) are programmed using the serial communication.

Arduino Mega supports four hardware Serial Communication interfaces. Digital IO pins 0 and 1 are used as Serial RX0 and TX0 pins to receive and transmit serial data. These pins are connected to the serial pins of the on-board USB to Serial Converter IC.

Similarly. Digital IO pins 19 and 18 as RX1 and TX1, 17 and 16 as RX2 and TX2 and 15 and 14 as RX3 and TX3 respectively.

Digital IO Pins 20 and 21 can be configured as SDA (20) and SCL (21) to support I2C or I2C or Two Wire Interface (TWI) communication.

The final communication interface is the SPI. Digital IO Pins 50, 51 52 and 53 can be configured as SPI pins MISO, MOSI, SCK and SS respectively.

Additional Features

There is an on-board LED connected to digital IO pin 13. Use this LED to perform Blinky operations. The reference voltage for the internal ADC is by default set to 5V. But using the AREF pin, you can manually set the upper limit of the ADC.

Using the IOREF pin, you can set the reference voltage for Microcontroller operations.

To reset the microcontroller, you can use the on-board RESET button.

Although you can program the Arduino Mega using the USB cable, there is a provision to program the MCU using the In-Circuit Serial Programming (ICSP) interface.

The UART bootloader, which is preloaded in to the ATmega2560 Microcontroller, enables programming through serial interface. But ICSP doesn’t need any bootloader. You can program Arduino Mega using ISCP or use the ISCP of Arduino Mega to program other Arduino Boards.

Digital IO Pins 2, 3, 18, 19, 20 and 21 can be configured as External Interrupts Pins INT0, INT1, INT5, INT4, INT3 and INT2 respectively. Use attachInterrupt() function to configure the Interrupt for rising edge, falling edge or level change on the pin.

If you want use any Shields, then Arduino Mega is perfectly compatible with most of shields designed for Arduino UNO.

Arduino Mega Pinout

Now that we have seen a little bit about Arduino Mega and its important features and specifications, let us dive into the Arduino Mega Pinout. The following image shows the complete pinout of Arduino Mega Board.

As you can see from the image, I described each pin of the Arduino Mega with its Microcontroller equivalent pin, alternative functions, default functionality and other additional features.

For higher resolution image, click here.

Conclusion

This was a brief overview on Arduino Mega board layout, technical specifications, important features and most importantly the complete Arduino Mega Pinout information.

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Arduino Mega Pinout | Arduino Mega 2560 Layout, Specifications (2024)

FAQs

What are the pinouts of ATmega2560 microcontroller? ›

Arduino Mega Pinout(Detailed Board Layout) Arduino Mega 2560 has 54 digital input/output pins, where 16 pins are analog inputs, 14 are PWM pins, and 6 are hardware serial ports (UARTs). It has a crystal oscillator-16 MHz, a power jack, an ICSP header, a USB-B port, and a RESET button.

What pins are PWM on Arduino Mega 2560? ›

Arduino 2560 has 12 pins supporting PWM. They are from 2 to 13 included. the PWM default frequency is 490 Hz for all pins, with the exception of pin 13 and 4, whose frequency is 980 Hz (I checked with an oscilloscope).

What is the function of each digital pin in Mega 2560 microcontroller board? ›

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.

What size power jack for 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.

How are pinouts numbered? ›

Pins are numbered (counted) from the bottom of the row to the top, then picked up at the bottom of the next row. For male headers, start on the left and for female headers, start on the right. For headers attached to ribbon cables, the pins are numbered linearly across the cable.

What are the serial pins on Arduino Mega? ›

The Arduino Mega has three additional serial ports: Serial1 on pins 19 (RX) and 18 (TX), Serial2 on pins 17 (RX) and 16 (TX), Serial3 on pins 15 (RX) and 14 (TX).

Are all 4 pins PWM? ›

If Pin 4 is described as “Speed Control” or “PWM” or the like, you can be sure that the fan header supports PWM. Unfortunately, the description of Pin 2 is not always a clear indication as some manufacturers use terms such as “Fan PWR” or “Power” for both types of fan headers.

Is PWM always 4-pin? ›

Every mainstream motherboard that leaves the factory today is equipped with at least one 4-pin PWM header. High-end motherboards offer 4-6 or even more of these 4-pin fan/pump connectors, and the PWM system is a very effective and smart way to control the fans.

How can you tell which arduino pins have PWM? ›

On an Arduino Uno, PWM output is possible on digital I/O pins 3, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11. On these pins the analogWrite function is used to set the duty cycle of a PWM pulse train that operates at approximately 500 Hz2. Thus, with a frequency fc = 500Hz, the period is τc = 1/fc ∼ 2ms.

Why is the digital pin 13 a special pin? ›

NOTE: Digital pin 13 is harder to use as a digital input than the other digital pins because it has an LED and resistor attached to it that's soldered to the board on most boards.

What does each pin on Arduino do? ›

It is used to Resets the microcontroller. Analog Pins: The pins A0 to A5 are used as an analog input and it is in the range of 0-5V. Digital Pins: The pins 0 to 13 are used as a digital input or output for the Arduino board. Serial Pins: These pins are also known as a UART pin.

Can Arduino Mega analog pins be used as digital? ›

To use an analog pin as a digital pin, you simply have to set the mode for the pin, as you would do for digital pins in the setup() function of your Arduino program. Then, you can use the digitalWrite() and digitalRead() functions and it will work perfectly.

Can I use 12V 2a for Arduino? ›

The 12v supply will be OK for the Arduino (there is no such thing as too many amps - it only uses what it needs). You need a separate circuit from the same 12v supply to provide 4.8v to 6v to power the servo.

How do I know what size DC jack I need? ›

The most important thing to look for is what type of DC connector your device will need. Various DC output connectors include: 2.1mm inner diameter x 5.5mm outer diameter female, 2.5mm inner diameter x 5.5mm outer diameter female, 3.5mm male, 4-pin, 5-pin, and 6-pin DIN male; and also stripped and tinned wires.

Can I power Arduino with 12V 2a? ›

With a 12V source, yes, current should limited to avoid overheating/shutting down the regulator. With a 9V or 7.5V source, one can do quite a bit. For example, four MAX7219s driving 8x8 LED matrixes as I did here.

What is pinout diagram? ›

In electronics, a pinout (sometimes written "pin-out") is a cross-reference between the contacts, or pins, of an electrical connector or electronic component, and their functions. "Pinout" now supersedes the term "basing diagram" that was the standard terminology used by the manufacturers of vacuum tubes and the RMA.

What are the different types of pinouts? ›

Phone pinouts come in two varieties, straight and reverse. Straight cables are used to send data, like a fax machine, while reverse cables are used for voice, like a telephone. On a straight cable, the wires will connect to the same metal pins on either side of the cable.

What is pin configuration? ›

Configuration pins are used to load the design data into SRAM-based FPGAs. The bitstream defines the functional operation of the internal resources, interconnections and I/O for the FPGA. The configuration mode selected to program the FPGA is an important design factor to consider when assigning pins.

What is the difference between the 5v and Vin pins on your Arduino? ›

VIN is the completely unaltered input power before the regulator (it will be useless if regulated 5v is supplied directly). Outputting power is what the 5v pin is intended to be used for, not as a power input.

What do pins 0 and 1 do on Arduino? ›

Pins 0 and 1 are used by the USB port to upload your sketch. After the sketch is loaded, you can use them as digital pin. Just call them 0 and 1. You can power your Arduino from USB if you don't draw more than what your computer can supply (around 500ma).

Does it matter what pin you use on an Arduino? ›

If you have any analog sensors connected to your Arduino, then you should always use one of the Arduino ground pins to connect the ground side of the analog sensor(s), and different ground pins to connect the ground side of any output devices and (if applicable) power.

Can I use 3 pin PWM fans on a 4 pin header? ›

A 3-pin case fan can easily be connected to a 4-pin connector on the motherboard.

What happens if you set 3 pin fan to PWM? ›

3 pin fans are controllable with increasing or decreasing voltage. So plugging a 3 pin into a 4 pin pwm software controlled hub header will only run the fan at full speed.

Is PWM better than non PWM? ›

Due to the way PWM fans function, they're generally more efficient than DC fans and use less power. Consider the duty cycles of PWM fans. When a fan is on a 40% duty cycle, it's only using electrical power 40% of the time. In comparison, the DC fans, if anything, will use a slightly lower voltage.

Do I need both 8 pin and 4 pin? ›

The 4 pin is only necessary if you are doing extreme overclocking, such as LN2. Otherwise the 8 pin will provide all the power you will need.

Does PWM change voltage or current? ›

The most common control method is the use of Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). The pulse width of the AC signal at the power supply's input is adjusted to increase or reduce the electrical energy, which in turn translates to a change to the voltage at the output of the power supply.

Are PWM pins analog or digital? ›

PWM, or Pulse Width Modulation is a technique for getting an analog output using digital signals. A digital signal, in general, can have either of the two values: HIGH/ON or LOW/OFF.

Can I use analog pins as PWM Arduino? ›

The pin number is its only parameter. The Arduino does not have a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) built-in, but it can do pulse-width modulation (PWM) a digital signal used to achieve some of an analog output's functions. The function analogWrite(pin, value) is used to output a PWM signal.

Which pin number controls the PWM? ›

However there's a note: PWM timer peripheral is duplicated on two pins (A5/D2) and (A4/D3) for 7 total independent PWM outputs. For example: PWM may be used on A5 while D2 is used as a GPIO, or D2 as a PWM while A5 is used as an analog input.

What is the difference between PWM pins and analog pins? ›

Analog pin is for input.. These pwm pins are output pins.. Pwm pins are not actually analog.. basesd on witdh of the pulse..it determines the analog valu..

Can a pin be both input and output? ›

Each I/O pin is both an input and an output and can be used as both at the same time. Input pins are used to read the outside world and output pins are used to control the outside world.

How many amps can Arduino handle? ›

The maximum current draw of the Arduino is 200mA.

What is the maximum pin current for Arduino? ›

As mentioned, the maximum output current an Arduino's digital pin can supply is 40mA (or 20mA continuous current).

What are two two main types of Arduino pins? ›

There are three main types of Arduino pins: digital pins, analog pins and power pins.

What are the 3 main pin sections on the Arduino board? ›

Pins (3.3, 5, GND, Vin)

Most of the components used with Arduino board works fine with 3.3 volt and 5 volt. GND (8)(Ground) − There are several GND pins on the Arduino, any of which can be used to ground your circuit.

What are the 14 digital pins in Arduino? ›

The 14 digital input/output pins can be used as input or output pins by using pinMode(), digitalRead() and digitalWrite() functions in arduino programming. Each pin operate at 5V and can provide or receive a maximum of 40mA current, and has an internal pull-up resistor of 20-50 KOhms which are disconnected by default.

Can we give 12V to Arduino Mega? ›

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.

Are Arduino digital pins 5V? ›

digitalWrite()

If the pin has been configured as an OUTPUT with pinMode() , its voltage will be set to the corresponding value: 5V (or 3.3V on 3.3V boards) for HIGH , 0V (ground) for LOW .

Does Arduino Mega have DAC? ›

Arduino Mega 2560 does not have any DAC peripheral. You will need some additional hardware to implement it.

Can I use 5V 1A instead of 5V 2a? ›

Yes, it is absolutely safe to charge a device with a charger that has more current capacity than needed.

Can I use both 3.3 V and 5V Arduino? ›

Yes, you can power something from the 5V pin and something else from the 3.3V pin.

Can I power Arduino with 3.7 V battery? ›

3.7V LiPo batteries are useful for low-power Arduino IoT applications. The 600mAh battery shown here can power a standard Arduino Uno board for a few days under moderate processing conditions, and up to several months with the right sleep routines and modifications (power down, no LED, etc.)!

What is the standard DC pin size? ›

It's inner diameter is standard 2.1mm while outer diameter of 5.5mm.

What is the standard size for jack pins? ›

Common size configurations for jacks and plugs are 3.5mm, 2.5mm, and 6.35mm. The 3.5mm jack, in particular, is practically universal when it comes to headphones and audio gear and thus is considered the standard headphone jack size.

What is the standard DC plug size? ›

Many non-proprietary co-axial power plugs are 5.5 mm (0.22 in) in outside diameter (OD) and 9.5 mm (0.37 in) in length. Two pin sizes are common in the jacks for this size plug body, 2.1 mm (0.083 in) and 2.5 mm (0.098 in), and the plugs should match.

How much voltage can Arduino Mega handle? ›

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.

Can Arduino power a 12V LED strip? ›

Connect the emitter of all the transistors to the Ground of Arduino. Connect the Ground of 12V power supply to the Ground of Arduino. Connect the positive terminal of 12V power supply to the 12V pin of RGB LED strip.

Can I use 12V 1.5 A for 12V 2a? ›

Can you use a 12V 2a charger on a 12V 1.5 a device or 12v 1a device ? You can use a 12V supply with a higher current rating, but not a lower one. The device will only draw the current it wants, but the supply has to able to put out the maximum current the device wants.

How many pins are there in Atmega16? ›

Atmega16 is a 40 pin microcontroller based on enhanced RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) architecture with 131 powerful instructions. It has a 16 KB programmable flash memory, static RAM of 1 KB and EEPROM of 512 Bytes. The endurance cycle of flash memory and EEPROM is 10,000 and 100,000, respectively.

How many pins does ATMEGA328P microcontroller have? ›

Atmega328 has 28 pins in total. It has 3 Ports in total which are named as Port B, Port C and Port D.

What is the pin count for ATmega? ›

ATMEGA328P is a 28 pin chip as shown in pin diagram above. Many pins of the chip here have more than one function. We will describe functions of each pin in below table.

What is the difference between ATmega2560 and ATMEGA328P? ›

Difference Between Arduino and ATmega2560 AVR

It differs from the ATmega328 in that it is only available in a surface mount package, so can't be inserted into and removed from a socket on the Arduino. It also has more memory, more pins and more built-in hardware peripherals than the ATmega328.

What is difference between ATmega16 and ATmega16A? ›

The ATmega16A is a functionally identical, drop-in replacement for the ATmega16. All devices are subject to the same qualification process and same set of production tests, but as the manufacturing process is not the same some electrical characteristics differ. ATmega16 and ATmega16A have separate datasheets.

How many PWM pins are there in Atmega328? ›

The Atmega328 has 28 pins. It has 14 digital I/O pins, of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs and 6 analog input pins. These I/O pins account for 20 of the pins. The pinout for the Atmega328 is shown below.

How many pins are there in ATmega8 pin configuration? ›

The Atmega8 microcontroller consists of 28 pins where pins 9,10,14,15,16,17,18,19 are used for port B, Pins 23,24,25,26,27,28 and 1 are used for port C and pins 2,3,4,5,6,11,12 are used for port D.

What is the difference between 1 point Atmega328 and ATMEGA328P? ›

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ATMEGA328/328P

Atmega328P just consumes lower power than Atmega328. Look up the numbers in the datasheet. This means that the 328P is manufactured in a finer process than the 328. Ex: 328 could be a 90nm process and 328P could be a 60nm process.

What is the difference between ATMEGA328P and ATMEGA328P Pu? ›

The main difference is the bit before the - . That is, the 328 vs the 328P. The "P" there denotes "Picopower" which allows the chip to run at very low power consumptions. Basically the P version is a more modern version of the non-P chip.

What does P stand for in ATMEGA328P? ›

BJustification: The p letter in ATmega328p stands for pico‐power5.

What are the 3 types of pins on Arduino? ›

Analog Pins: The pins A0 to A5 are used as an analog input and it is in the range of 0-5V. Digital Pins: The pins 0 to 13 are used as a digital input or output for the Arduino board. Serial Pins: These pins are also known as a UART pin.

How many pins are there in Arduino Mega 2560? ›

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.

What is the maximum input output pins of ATmega328? ›

The ATmega328 is a single-chip microcontroller created by Atmel in the megaAVR family (later Microchip Technology acquired Atmel in 2016).
...
Features.
ParameterValue
EEPROM1 KB
Package pin count28 or 32
Capacitive touch sensing channels16
Maximum I/O pins23
7 more rows

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