The Arduino Mega 2560 is an update on the older Mega board and provides a 54 digital perfect for larger projects. If you've worked with the Arduino Uno, or other smaller Arduino boards, then you'll love the Mega 2560. It retains the Uno's shield compatibility so you can use all of your existing hardware, and the extra pins have been added to the end of the board. With the extra pins comes a bump in hardware peripherals such as UART, TWI (I2C), SPI and PWM.

The Mega 2560 has an Atmel Atmega2560 microcontroller which packs 8x the amount of Flash memory (256KB), and 4x the SRAM and EEPROM (8KB and 4KB respectively). Whilst the extra hardware and connectivity is a great option, keep in mind that the mega2560 still runs at the same clock speed as the mega328 chip found on the Uno.

Tech Specs

• Atmel AVR Atmega2560 microcontroller with an Atmega16u2 for USB connectivity
• 256KB Flash
• 8KB SRAM
• 4KB EEPROM
• Power via USB or 5-12V barrel jack Vin pin/DC jack (automatic source detection)
• 16MHz clock speed
• 54 digital I/O pins
• 16 analogue I/O pins
• 15 PWM pins
• 40mA MAX per pin
• 38mA average power consumption
• 36g
• 53.3mm x 101.5mm
• Peripherals:
• 4 UART ports
• 6 external interrupt pins
• 1 SPI port
• 1 TWI (I2C) port

For more information about the board revisions, specifications, or features, take a look at the Arduino site.