Interfacing an external ADC with an Arduino Board

Other Hardware Hardware Development
1

Hey smart people, I need some help interfacing an External ADC (TLV571) with my Arduino board (MEGA 2560). I'm knew to all of this and was wondering if someone could offer some friendly advice.

I also need to communicate with my External ADC but first I need to interface it.

Thanks guys.

-J

2
3

That is not the best chip in the world for interfacing with the arduino, it requires 12 pins.
Much better to get one with a SPI or I2C interface.

4

Try one of these
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en/integrated-circuits-ics/data-acquisition-analog-to-digital-converters-adc/2556291?k=mcp3201
Read the data back with 2 SPI transfers, see 6.1 in the datasheet.

digitalWrite (csPin, LOW); // replace with direct port manipulation for speed
lower = SPI.tranfer(0);
upper = SPI.transfer(0);
digitalWrite (csPin, HIGH); // replace with direct port manipulation for speed
// and put the 2 bytes together
5

vs a part that will tie up all kinds of IO pins as GM says: