RobotDyn MCU-PRO Mega 2560 ATmega2560-16AU, USB CH340C - Castellated pitch 0.05"

Product detailed description

RobotDyn MCU-PRO Mega 2560 ATmega2560-16AU, USB CH340C

Embedded motherboard based on Atmega2560 chip with Arduino bootloader, 86 I/O ports, logic level 3.3V or 5V, USB-UART converter CH340C

Details

The MCU-PRO MEGA 2560 is small, which is a big advantage when creating final products. The board has 86 I/O pins of which 69 are digital I/O pins, 17 analog inputs (YES, more pins than the standard Arduino Mega 2560 with 70 I/O pins), 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports), one I2C bus and one SPI interface and a larger memory of 256KB for your program. In addition, you can create projects with 3.3V or 5V logic level. The board has a built-in solution for switching between 3.3V and 5V. Just connect to your computer via USB and load the code from the Arduino IDE.

Programming

The MCU-PRO Mega 2560 can be programmed in Arduino® IDE software. The MCU-PRO Mega 2560 comes with a pre-installed bootloader for the Arduino IDE, which allows you to upload new code without using an external programmer. You can also program the microcontroller directly via ICSP (In-Circuit Serial Programming).

Power

MCU-PRO Mega 2560 can be powered by USB or external power supply. The board has a resettable fuse that protects your computer's USB ports from short circuits and overcurrent. If more than 500 mA is supplied to the USB port, the fuse will automatically cut the connection until the problem is corrected.

The external power supply can be from a DC adapter or a battery. The microcontroller can operate with external power supply:

• To VIN: 7 to 9 volts.
• Up to 5V: 5V. (Logic level will be 5V, switching to 5V)
• Up to 3.3V: 3.3V. (Logic level will be 3.3V, switching to 3.3V)
• To VCC-IOREF: 5V (Logic level will be 3.3V) or 3.3V (Logic level will be 3.3V). In this case, the current regulators will be disconnected and the microcontroller will use only a small current. The 5V/3.3V voltage switch must be disconnected (without soldering). Details can be found in the datasheet.

If less than 6.4V is supplied to VIN, the 5V pin may supply less than five volts and the microcontroller may be unstable. If more than 9~12V is used, the voltage regulator may overheat and damage the board. The recommended voltage is 7 ~ 9V.

Memory

The ATmega2560 has 256KB flash memory for code storage (of which 8KB is reserved for the bootloader), 8KB SRAM and 4KB EEPROM (which can be read and written with the EEPROM library).

Entry and exit

MCU-PRO MEGA 2560 ports:

Each of the 70 digital pins on the MCU-PRO MEGA 2560 can be used as input or output using the pinMode(), digitalWrite(), digitalRead() functions. The pins operate at the selected logic level (5V or 3.3V). Each pin can provide or receive 20 mA as a recommended operating condition and has a built-in pull-up resistor (disconnected by default) of 20-50 kΩ. The 40 mA maximum is a value that must not be exceeded to avoid permanent damage to the microcontroller. In addition, some pins have special functions:

Serial port: D0 (RX0) and D1 (TX0); Serial port 1: D19 (RX1) and D18 (TX1); Serial port 2: D17 (RX2) and D16 (TX2); Serial port 3: D15 (RX3) and D14 (TX3). They are used to receive (RX) and transmit (TX) TTL serial data. Pins D0 and D1 are also connected to the corresponding pins of the USB-UART serial chip (ATmega16U2/ CP2104/ CH340C depending on the board model).

External interruptions: D2 (interrupt 0), D3 (interrupt 1), D18 (interrupt 5), D19 (interrupt 4), D20 (interrupt 3), D21 (interrupt 2). These pins can be set to trigger low-level interrupts on the rising or falling edge of the signal, or when changing to logic levels. See the attachInterrupt() function for more information.

PWM: D2 to D13 and D44 to D46. With the analogWrite() function, they can provide an 8-bit PWM output.

SPI: D50 (MISO), D51 (MOSI), D52 (SCK), D53 (SS). These pins support SPI communication and the use of the SPI library. These pins are also divided by ICSP headers.

I2C (TWI): D20 (SDA) and D21 (SCL). They support TWI communication using the Wire library.

Analog IN: The MCU-PRO Mega 2560 has 17 analog inputs, each with 10-bit resolution (i.e., providing 1024 different values). By default, it measures values from GND to the voltage level (5/3.3 V), however, it is possible to change the upper measurement limit using the AREF pin and analogReference() functions.

On the board we can find several other pins:

AREF: Reference voltage for analog inputs. Used with the analogReference() function.

Reset: Connect a LOW (minus) signal to this pin to restart the microcontroller. Usually used by adding a reset button to shields that block it on the board.

Communication

The MCU-PRO Mega 2560 has a number of devices for communication with a computer, other digital boards or microcontrollers. The MCU-PRO Mega 2560 provides 4 hardware UART ports for TTL communication. USB-UART connects one of these ports to the computer via USB and provides a virtual COM port for the software on the computer (the OS automatically recognizes the board as a COM port). Arduino IDE software includes a serial monitor that allows simple text data to be sent back to the board. During data transfer via USB-UART chip and connected USB to the computer, the RX and TX LEDs will flash (this does not apply to serial communication on pins D0 and D1). The MCU-PRO MEGA 2560 also supports I2C(TWI) and SPI communication. Arduino The IDE includes a Wire library for easier use of the I2C(TWI) bus. Use the SPI library for SPI communication.

USB

MCU-PRO MEGA 2560 has micro USB for connection to PC. There are also 4 pinouts on the board for connecting an external USB cable or USB converter.

Specifications:

The library is an extension of the Arduino IDE for the MCU-PRO Mega 2560 with additional pins. It contains several pins:

Included in delivery:

• 1pc RobotDyn MCU-PRO Mega 2560 ATmega2560-16AU, USB CH340C - Castellated pitch 0.05"

Remark:

• This product is not a standalone functional unit and may require professional installation.

Sources:

• Let's start with Arduino
• ATmega2560 Datasheet
• CH340G Datasheet
• Drivers for CH340
• Arduino IDE
• Diagram
• Library
• Wiring with Processing IDE (reference) Multiplatform development environment (Win/Linux/Mac/...)