Many components for single Arduino mega

Projects General Guidance
1

Good morning,

I am working on my graduation project and planning to use Arduino.
The project includes the following components:

  1. two stepper motors
  2. Serial LCD
  3. HC06 Bluetooth module
  4. adafruit RFID reader
  5. coin accepted
  6. Wifi Sheild

I am planning to use Arduino Mega since I will have many components used.
I am unsure if I will face any problems since I will use many components. Moreover, can you suggest a suitable affordable Wi-Fi shield?

Thanks in advance

2

You don't have that many components :wink:

Serial LCD is 2 wires (Tx, Rx).
Bluetooth is 2 wires.
RFID possibly 3 wires (SPI interface?)
Coin acceptor (1 wire)
WiFi shield possibly 2 or 3 wires.

The above excludes GND and Vcc.

I'm not familiar with steppers so can't advise; just be aware that you can not power steppers from a Mega (or the below mentioned ESP32), you'll need a separate power supply for that.

I would suggest that you look at ESP32 boards; they have the WiFi built-in. I'm not familiar with them. Be aware that they are 3.3V boards so you might need level shifters when interfacing with 5V devices.

3

Add drivers for the steppers.

4

Yes. I am using easy driver for stepper motor.
One more thing I want to clarify: can I use both ESP32 and Arduino Mega to establish a wifi connection, or do I only need ESP32? This is my first time using ESP32 I am not familiar with it

5

Only an ESP32 should do. Just like you, I'm not familiar with them.

But plenty people here use them.

6

Can you write non-blocking code?

1 Like
7

There are very many ESP32-based variants. Not all expose enough I/O pins that are truly general purpose and not already used by onboard features, so you can get tricked easily. Just because the pretty picture shows 20 or more I/O pins, doesn't mean half or more aren't already in use for functions you don't need. But yes, if I wanted wifi on a project, I'd start with the ESP variants, not bothering with shields or other options.

@FutureEngineer Your I/O count is actually within reach of an Uno, though the needs of the wifi aspect is unknown to me; if it's SPI, and the RFID is using SPI, then Wifi may only need a single extra pin, but dig deep to make sure there aren't other gotchas.

So, either way, do your research; last thing you want to do is have to change horses at the 11th hour.

8

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