Arduino Mega Vs UNO – Comparison and Review

If you are an electronic or robotics geek, then you must know about the Arduino boards and how they can help you easily and quickly finish your designs and projects. They are open-source platforms for the tinkerers, hobbyists, designers, and anyone who wants to create some unique and useful hardware environment.

There is a wide range of Arduino microcontrollers are available ranging from simple circuits to the complex of designs to test your skills. So picking up the right board is essential before you start your circuit design. In my previous post, I have compared Arduino Nano Vs Micro boards, and today I am going to compare and review the other two most popular Arduino boards i.e. Arduino Mega and UNO. Check it below.

Arduino Mega Vs UNO

Arduino UNO

If you want to know the flagship board of Arduino, here it is. The Arduino UNO has a design to help both the beginners as well as pros to complete their projects efficiently. It is one of the most popular and used boards from the family. If you are starting your first project with the Arduino, I will recommend you to get this board.

Arduino Mega

The Mega as the name suggests is the bigger version of the Arduino UNO. This means it can be a good choice for the larger projects like robotics and 3D printers. Actually, there are two versions of Arduino Mega; the Mega256 and Mega2560. The later has an upgraded processor and higher flash memory which is suitable for the projects requiring more number of inputs and outputs.

Arduino UNO Vs Mega Comparison Table

Arduino Mega 2560 Vs UNO – Software and Hardware

The Arduino Mega comes with four serial ports of hardware to let you have the maximum speed. On the other hand, the UNO uses Surface Mount Device components. You can program both these boards using the Arduino IDE Software. Both of them come with preburned bootloaders for uploading the source codes. You can bypass the bootloader by using the In-Circuit Serial Programming header. These boards use STK500 protocol for communication.

Arduino UNO Vs Mega 2560 – Features and Specifications

• The Mega uses the ATmega2560 microcontroller which consists 54 digital I/O pins, among which 16 are analog inputs, and 15 are PWM outputs. The Arduino UNO comes with the ATmega328 microcontroller containing 20 digital I/O pins, among which 6 are analog I/O pins, and 6 are PWM outputs.
• Unlike to the other Arduino boards, the UNO has ATmega16U2 which is programmed to act as a USB-to-serial converter.
• The shields designed for the older Arduino boards like Duemilanove and the newer versions like UNO are having the compatibility to the Arduino Mega 2560.
• The UNO board is a good choice for the Arduino beginners as well as experts for small to medium size projects. Though you can join it with other board for the larger projects, if you don’t like complex of designs, then you can get Arduino Mega which has double hardware specifications than the UNO board.

The Arduino board’s extended line-up provides a great help to push the limits of your imagination and implementation skills. This wide range of selection sometimes creates a bit confusing thing as a simple Arduino board cannot be enough to match your expectations. So you needed a well-designed and managed electronics prototyping platform to expand the capabilities. Different Arduino starter kits come with some particular microcontroller boards to give you the best shot for your money according to your interest.

Check your needs, calculate your budget, make a list of things you will require and then pick up the right microcontroller board from the mentioned reviews and comparisons.