Does any board provide more than 1024 analog input values?

Question

The Arduino boards provide an analog input range of 0V to 5V which translates to 0 to 1023 integer values. The range is determined by the on-board ADC, which in the case of the Uno is a 10 bit ADC (2^10 = 1024).

Do any of the official boards have a larger (>10 bits) ADC? Do any boards provide a wider range of analog input values?

why do you need more bits of resolution specifically? – Mar 24 '14 at 17:36 — , Mar 24 '14 at 17:36

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 22 '14 at 16:05

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AVR-based Arduinos only have 10-bit ADCs, but the ATSAM3X in the Due has 12-bit ADCs. Additionally, it is possible to interface to higher-resolution external ADCs via I²C or SPI.

answered Mar 22 '14 at 16:05

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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Remember that more bits imply higher sensitivity to power supply various other sources of noise. – jippie Mar 22 '14 at 17:05
Could you please provide some references of external ADC chips that connect through I2C or SPI? – jfpoilpret Mar 22 '14 at 17:47
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@jfpoilpret:http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/data-converters/analog-to-digital-converter-products.page#p84=11;31&p158=Serial%20I2C;Serial%20SPI;Serial%20SPI%20Interface http://www.microchip.com/ParamChartSearch/chart.aspx?branchID=11022&mid=10&lang=en&pageId=79 http://parametric.linear.com/analog-to-digital_converters_%28adc%29#!cols_1049,1030,2201,1097,1059,1058,1054,1367!s_1049,1!gtd_!1049_%3E=11!1054_Serial%20I2C|Serial%20SPI http://www.analog.com/parametricsearch/en/10169?mtuid=MTS5KSkLdcfF-PC#10169?p7=11|12|13|14|15|16|18|20|22|24&d=sel|0|-1|7|165|4162|88|164|-3|4365&p4365=SPI|I%B2C/Ser%202-Wire – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Mar 22 '14 at 18:20
@jippie, remember that multi-sampling is always available for ADC chips that don't lock in their value... – Michael Goldshteyn Aug 16 '15 at 01:46

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 24 '14 at 04:19

How much accuracy do you really need? If it's just 1 or 2 extra bits of resolution you are after, you might be able to achieve that with a bit of oversampling.

Basically, you take a ton of readings and average them. It only works if there is at least a few mV of random noise in your signal or in your ADC, and if your input signal bandwidth is low enough to be averaging samples together.

Otherwise, go with a dedicated ADC chip.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 09 '15 at 03:31

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They all do with oversampling. You can evaluate the quality of doing this for your own use.

answered Aug 09 '15 at 03:31

Michael Goldshteyn

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Welcome to Arduino SE! Can you please add to your post to explain how you do this? Thanks! – Anonymous Penguin Aug 14 '15 at 21:11

Does any board provide more than 1024 analog input values?

3 Answers3