Driving 5v external components from Due

[SteveL_UK]

Hi all

First time poster, be gentle with me!

I am about to swap my Duo to Due early in my project (need the extra speed), and am wondering what the best or preferred way to drive external 5v components from the Due would be?

My stepper motor driver boards are fine (BED), they have the option to run 3.3/5v, but items like the Adafruit 16x2 LCD displays run from 5v logic, and the backlighting already have the suitable resistors in place for running from 5v supplies. I am sure there will many places where the 3.3/5v barrier will need to be crossed, in both directions if I need to read digital input too at a later stage.

So, can anyone point me in one of the many directions for a simple solution? (I know there will be many possible ways to do this!)

By the way, assume I dont know much about complex circuits, this is my first electronics project in over 20 years. Although things are slowly coming back to me, I do need to fill a lot of basics along the way

Thanks in advance

Steve

[JD3]

I do not have the Due but i have been interested in one. I am going to wait for others to "beta test" it for me

On the Arduino website under products there is a product page for the Due.

It seems to have a 5v regulator, available on the 5v pin, but all the I/O pins are only 3.3v.
As long as you are only needing the 5v for supply you can use the 5v pin for that.

Avoid using a shield or breakout board that sends a 5v signal back to the Due.

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardDue

[SteveL_UK]

After working out that what I needed was called a logic level converter, the item magically appeared in my search on the adafruit site

8 way bidirectional logic level converter
https://www.adafruit.com/products/395

and

4 way bidirectional logic level converter
https://www.adafruit.com/products/757

[JD3]

WOW!!!

Looks like I need to use these on my next shield design for the Due.

Thanks