All;
I'm not sure of this is the right forum but I have an Arduino mega 2560 that I bought several years ago and I want to finally start using it. However, I was wondering if the shields and do-dads for the newest mega 2560 R3 are backwards compatible with the first version. Is it necessary for me to trash the one that I have and buy the newest one?
Thanks;
Frank
For the most part Arduino is not one of those "have to have the latest" things.
You should be fine although maybe a refresh of the bootloader might be of use.
Newer shields might have 8 pins at the power header instead of 6, so you might have to watch for shorts to the large caps next to the barrel jack. Same on the opposite side, where 2 more pins were added to connect to I2C pins.
Otherwise, no issues should be seen.