I need an Arduino alternative developmental board, at least 40 digital I/O pins, 16 analog I/O pins, 5V ADC with good linearity (comparable to Arduino Nano's or better). What are my options? Someone suggested a Teensy 4.1 but its got a 3.3V ADC.
Most newer designs of boards are 3.3V. The days of 5V are coming to a close.
Why must it be 5V? Is there some 5V only device you need it to be interacted to? Could you use signal level shifters?
Why must it have 40 digital pins? Could you not use I/o extender chips?
I suspect the reasons you think you need these things can probably be overcome in other, possibly better, ways.
my analog signals are in that range and I'd like to not have to get back to the electronics drawing board.
Would need lots of Digital I/O as I've got lots of relay switches and MOSFETs to signal. I haven't heard of I/O extender chips. I'll look into them. Even if we can do with lesser Digital I/O, I still need 16 analog I/O with 5V ADC.
Voltage dividers?
If you have separate wires going from the Arduino to each relay or mosfet, that's going to be a horrible rat's nest of wires. Might be better to have a I/O extender chip or simple shift registers to control groups of 8 or 16 relays/mosfets, then only a few wires need to go from there back to the arduino, or chained to the next group of 8/16. And far fewer Arduino pins needed.
You can extend the number of analog inputs in various ways including analog multiplexers and external ADC chips.
1 Like
Thank you. I'll look into these options. So it would be too much hoping for a readymade one board solution? I was really hoping that I'll just get something like a Nano but bigger. Love the Nano.
What I'm trying to show you is that a single ready made board might sound like the perfect solution, but in practice might turn out to be a nightmare of wiring.
Breaking down a large circuit into a number of modules, in some cases multiple identical modules, can help reduce the complexity overall.
The only board I can think of that's similar to your description is Mega 2560. It's a board I would not use for my own projects because in my mind it has too many pins in one place!
1 Like
I think your best bet might be a MEGA2560 based board. Either the Arduino MEGA2560 or there is another board called a MEGA2560 PRO which you could use.
The MEGA2560 PRO is more compact than the original MEGA2560 and looks like this:
1 Like
understood. thanks.
Note that the MEGA2560 boards don't have DACs so you would need additional hardware for this.
you mean digital to analog convertor? First time I have heard of them. Have only heard of ADCs and that's all I need.
Yep, DAC = Digital to Analog(ue) Converter. If you don't need any analog(ue) outputs, then either of the MEGA2560 boards would do.
There is also the AVR DA & DB (and others) series of micros, but I have no knowledge of them. A quick look over on Dr Azzys github site shows that there is an Arduino core for those devices. Maybe one of them would also be suitable.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.