NKC Electronics

I started to receive the first questions about the new Arduino DUE board and decided to post the Q&A here:

Q. As the Arduino DUE works at 3.3V, I can manipulate sensors or peripherals that work at 5V? I'm gonna need adjust voltages?
A. The Arduino DUE I/O pins work at 3.3V and they are not 5V tolerant. It means that you need to level any INPUT signal to the DUE level (3.3V). If it is a simple general digital input, you can use a voltage divider made with 1K/2K resistors. Usually OUTPUT signals do not need adjustment or leveling because 3.3V is a tolerable value to 5V devices.

Q. The shields manufactured for Arduino UNO and Arduino Mega 2560, are compatible with the Arduino DUE?
A. Almost all shields out there are still 5V, so they are not compatible with the DUE. You will risk burning the Arduino DUE board. NKC Electronics's MEGAshield can be adjusted to operate at 3.3V. We will post a topic and update the link.