Points to remember about Arduino Uno or Mega in IoT

Prerequisite –
1. Microcontroller and Microprocessor
2. Basics of Arduino
In the age of Internet of Things(IoT) we are every day using any IoT device or coming across any IoT enabled device. We might have listened from our friends that microcontroller and microprocessor are used in IoT. Yes, that’s correct. Different types of microcontrollers are there which are used for different purposes. In this article we will discuss about Arduino Uno and Mega microcontroller. This article will help to clear confusion regarding Uno and Mega and what are their specifications. So that in future when we will go to use it, we can easily differentiate to use which one at which condition.

1. Arduino Uno :
Arduino Uno is an open-source microcontroller board developed by Arduino.cc. It is based on the Microchip ATmega328P microcontroller. It is one of the most popular Arduino development board and is universally known as ‘stock Arduino’. It is a small development board having size 2.7 in * 2.1 in. It is both highly hardware and software compatible. This board is equipped with sets of digital and analog input/output (I/O) pins but the pin counts are less than Arduino mega, but Uno is good for small developmental project and prototyping. Its less cost and features makes it a good choice among engineers and students for project development.

Points to note about Uno:

1. It is having ATMega328 microcontroller.
2. It is smaller than Mega in size as the dimension of Uno is 2.7 in * 2.1 in.
3. It is a good choice in case of space-restricted applications as it is smaller in size.
4. In price point of view it is lesser than Mega and it costs around 400 to 700 rupees.
5. It provides Flash memory of  is 32 kB.
6. EEPROM of Arduino Uno is 1 kB.
7. SRAM of Arduino Uno is 2 kB.
8. When the engineers need lesser GPIO pins in any project they go for this.
9. Arduino Uno is highly software compatible.
10. There are 14 digital I/O pins available in Uno.
11. There are 6 digital I/O with PWM pins available in Uno.
12. There are 6 analog pins available in Uno.
13. Arduino Uno has only one UART interface.

2. Arduino Mega :
The Arduino Mega 2560 is a microcontroller board from Arduino, and it is based on ATMega2560. It is also popular board for projects requiring more I/O lines, more sketch memory and more RAM. As it provides more I/O pins, more memory than UNO so in case of higher requirement Arduino Mega is preferred. It provides all features like Uno.

Points to note about Mega :

1. It is having ATMega2560 microcontroller.
2. It is larger than Uno in size as the dimension of Mega is 4 in * 2.1 in.
3. It is not so good in case of space-restricted applications as it is little larger in size.
4. In price point of view it is higher than Uno, and it costs around 700 to 1000 rupees.
5. Provides Flash memory of 256 kB.
6. EEPROM of Arduino Mega is 4 kB.
7. SRAM of Arduino Mega is 8 kB.
8. When the engineers need higher GPIO pins in any project they go for this.
9. Arduino Mega is not highly software compatible.
10. There are 54 digital I/O pins available in Mega.
11. There are 15 digital I/O with PWM pins available in Mega.
12. There are 16 analog pins available in Uno.
13. Arduino Mega has four UART interfaces.