Is there a way to increase the number of output pins in Arduino Uno? [duplicate]

Question

I am an amateur. I know about Arduino, but I am still learning.

And I was making this Bluetooth rover with a camera, ultrasonic sensor, mecanum wheels, air-soft shooter, and sand sample collector. I am using two L298 motor drivers, because L23D requires soldering and is a bit less compatible with me. So, when creating this amazing robot I realised that I ran out of pinmode spaces for the air-cannon and some other features.

So, is there a way to increase the number of output pins in an Arduino Uno or can I connect the Rx and Tx pins of the Bluetooth module and the trig and echo pin and use them both as one for two more spaces?

Answer 1

As an extension to Dario.Casciato’s response, there are not only I²C I/O expanders, but also the simple 74HC595 IC, which can be cascaded and used via Arduino's shiftOut function. It needs three signal pins for 8 / 16 / 24 ... outputs.

The link is not a purchase recommendation, but rather a technical hint.

Answer 2

What you probably want is called an ‘I/O Expander’. They come in many different varieties based both on exact means you use to communicate with them, how many I/O pins they give you, and what you can do with those pins.

The usual recommendation for use with an Arduino is an I²C based I/O expander, such a Microchip MCP23017 (available readily online from many sources and available in a DIP format so that you can use it with solderless breadboards), because this provides a reasonably fast interface that is very well supported on the Arduino and uses relatively few pins (only 2 pins are required, not counting Vcc and ground).

I’ve also personally used a Analog Devices DS2408 for this purpose before. It uses a 1-Wire interface, cutting the required pins down to only 1 not counting Vcc and ground, and also not actually requiring the use of a specific I/O pin like a proper I²C device would, but it’s also slower and not as nice to work with (you need a separate library to work with 1-Wire on most Arduino chips), and also only comes in SOIC packages (so requires some precise, but not necessarily difficult, soldering).

In theory you could also use an SPI I/O expander, but they are often a bit more of a pain to work with, and eat at last three pins (possibly four) other than Vcc and ground.

---

In theory, there are two other options in specific circumstances.

The first is a multiplexer chip, which is essentially a fancy solid-state switch with multiple outputs. These are only really practical if you just need to trigger external devices individually, though that may be viable for your use case (it could easily drive a simple level trigger for the airsoft gun and a simple edge trigger for the sand sample collector).

The second is to use a shift register. These are only viable if you have some way to latch outputs (for example, putting a gated D-latch on each output) or only need the outputs to be valid at specific points in time, because updating the outputs cycles each pin through the output values of each other pin. They’re great if you are doing something like implementing a parallel bus, but not as good if you need fast outputs that retain state.

Answer 3

It sounds like you are using some GPIOs ;) If you need more digital pins, you can use the analog pins as digital pins (if you didn't already).

If you already occupied these pins, then I would think about getting an I/O expander. It's a chip/IC that can be mostly controlled via I²C, offering you a way to scale your project's GPIO capabilities.