The Freaduino MEGA 2650 looks a nice board at first view. It is advertised as Arduino MEGA 2650 compatible with many extras. Like a switch to run on 3.3V or 5V, which makes it easier to interface to 3.3V devices. And a more capable power circuit when powered by a external powersupply: 800 mA 3.3V,5V 2A.
I have bought, a year ago, one of these boards: a 2012 version V1.4, date 22/10/2012. Looks well produced.
It has some deviations from the standard ATMEGA 2650 R3:
- The dimensions are not exactly identical to the Arduino MEGA2650, prototype boards do not fit. Pinout is identical though.
- It has a FTDI FT232L based serial interface instead of the ATmega16U2 IC.
- The FTDI FT232L on my board is a fake, so it becomes bricked when a current FTDI Windows driver detects this IC.
In 2014 I did not get it to work, due to the fake FT232L, and put it aside. But today I got it operational again! Alas still not operational on Windows, it works fine on a Linux system such as the Raspberry Pi.