I have only ever used the MEGA and UNO arduinos, just wondering can i program the DUE exactly the same as the MEGA? and therefore can i upload my sketches that were designed for the MEGA to the DUE ? Basically can i upload the stuff i write in the ARDUINO IDE straight to the DUE?
I haven't used the DUE but here's a few things to watch for.
- one obvious thing is that the pin assignments on the DUE may be different than on the UNO and MEGA.
- you must be careful that the DUE is a 3V3 part and won't tolerate 5V on its pins.
- you will need to use the 1.5.7 version of the IDE for the Due.
- in your code, 'int' on the MEGA and UNO is 16-bits but it is 32-bits on the DUE. This can cause problems with programs.
Pete
Also understand what "beta" software is - under development, not everything may work,
so check this forum esp. the list of working libraries.
Thanks! That's answers a lot, I will stick with the mega for now.
On the other hand, you don't challenge yourself very much staying with the same "old" hardware. There will come a day where everything will run at 3.3V and level shifters are really inexpensive. On my project, I started out with a Leonardo, then immediately ran out of I/O. Now comes the choice: Mega or Due? Mega is the old tried and true, and Due is new. The attribute that switched ME was speed. I wanted to keep track of two encoders which the Due has hardware support for, but I never wanted to write that code, so I just had two Interrupts to read for position. Had that been the Mega, I may well have been speed limited on my motions.