Hello,
I am having a hard time understanding the difference in real life applications between the 5V@16Mhz and the 3.3V@8Mhz.
All the info I found mentions the crystal speed difference but I can't find examples of projects that would work on the 16Mhz version and not on the 8Mhz. I would like to buy some Pro Minis for my projects but I can't decide on the version.
Providing 3.3V will be easier for me than 5V. So the 3.3V will fit my needs better in terms of supplying power to the project. I am confused about the limits of the 8Mhz crystal.
For projects that require to measure time, which would be better. Can the 8Mhz version accurately measure microseconds?
For projects that require a lot of math, will there be any difference between the time required to solve the math. Are there math projects that a 16Mhz version would solve and an 8Mhz version would not?
I assume that for projects requiring different sensors, there are no limitations if I choose senors that were designed to work at 3.3V. I can check that info in the datasheets before I buy my sensors.
What can the 5V@16Mhz version do that the 3.3V@8Mhz version can't? Some real life examples would be appreciated
As many sensors are not 5v-tolerant, the 3v3 micro is handy. You dont have to deal with voltage adaption.
In runs slower because the mcp dont run reliable at 16MHz at this low voltage.
Both versions will work just fine from a cellphone battery (3.7 .. 4V)
..so get one of each. You will experiance that any will do for most tasks.
Remember the adapter fro programming them
The 16MHz version thinks twice as fast as the 8MHz version. Unless pure processing speed is a limiting factor in your project, the difference is unlikely to matter to you.
numlo:
What can the 5V@16Mhz version do that the 3.3V@8Mhz version can't? Some real life examples would be appreciated
read a 0-5volt signal without modification.
one reason you might be having a hard time finding any differences are because they are not worth creating web pages.
at double the operations per second, the 16 will complete a complex calculation twice as fast in human time frames. as far as either chip is concerned, if the process has 1,000 operations it will be complete in 1,000 operations.
While many of the newer sensors are 3.3v only (or even lower voltage), if you are running lights like ws2812 (adafruit neopixels), these want 5v. I find many of the 16x2 lcds also seem to want 5v. Hobby motors tend to run better at 5v than 3.3v, so you can get by with only one power supply instead of two.