Paralleling of power switches in the Arduin Mega

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

Hi

I notice that on the Arduino Mega that the designer paralleled power mosfets, T1 (NDT2955) and T2 (FDN340P). On the Arduino Duemilanove only T1 is used.

Why do the designer parallel T1 and T2?

Why doesn't the designer use the same devices?

Thanks

2

This has been discussed here before. I don't own an Arduino Mega (but do have a Seeeduino Mega) so I can't say I've seen it with my own eyes, but the consensus here was that they don't populate the board with both switch transistors, but with just one or the other, it gives them more flexibility when sourcing parts for a batch production.

Lefty