Arduino ADC Capabilities?

Other Hardware Sensors
1

If I use the Arduino Mega 2560, Leonardo or Uno as an ADC, what is the max resolution I can get out of them? Should I expect it to be 8, 10, 12, or 16 bit resolution? The specs on the page for each don't seem to say and search results aren't consistent.

2

10 for 2560, Nano, and Uno, didn't look at the Leonardo.

3

Thanks, any Arduinos or similar that I could get 16 bit from?

4

Afraid you'll have to dig through their site. Or Google. Search for something like this, but with a bit more detail.
https://www.sparkfun.com/standard_arduino_comparison_guide

5

The Zero is 12-bit, if that helps.

6

I've heard that the 12-bit conversion on the ESP32 products is poor, by the way. No idea about higher resolution devices. 16 is sort of into the realm of dedicated converters you'd wire to any processor.

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7

No.
You can't integrate that high a resolution converter in a noisy environment like a processor, at least not with current technology.

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8

Have to ask, what are you doing that demands that precision, and what conversion rate are you looking for?

9

The Uno R4 nominally has a 14-bit mode. I think it is only linear to 12-bits though. You can oversample and filter to improve the SNR to the level you might expect from a 16-bit converter, but it will be in a restricted bandwidth. It depends on what you are trying to measure. The ADS1115 is a cheap, low-bandwidth 16-bit converter that can be easily integrated with an Arduino if you are okay with the low bandwidth. What's the application?

10

Nope. A 16bit ADC is a pretty rare and delicate beast. You can find SOME external 16bit ADC chips, but they require careful design to get that sort of resolution, and they tend to be pretty slow.

Keep in mind that "standard" high-accuracy 1% resistors are only accurate to about 7bits. To keep your whole circuit accurate to 16bits, you'd need something like 0.0015%r resistors (which don't exist, AFAIK.) High accuracy ADC circuitry requires other magic of some kind...

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