The Arduino concept revolutionized the hobbyist and DIY community. It became effortless to use a microcontroller in a project, thanks to one of the Arduino instantiations. Even better, other manufacturers could develop derivatives or clones thanks to the Open-Source Hardware licensing. Over the years, a plethora of shields and extensions were produced.
In the lineup, I appreciate the Mega 2560. An ATmega2560 powers the board and runs @ 16MHz, which has 256 KB of RAM and many more IOs than the iconic Uno. I used the Mega for different projects, from driving Nixie displays, timing code execution running on pocket computers, or programming clock generators. Over the years, the Mega became my go-to board, way before the Pies, as it provided ample resources and direct low-level access to the hardware, and uses the C language for programming.
But once an application is prototyped and works as expected, it is not trivial to use the Arduino-based solution in an industrial environment. For this purpose, I found two interesting breakout solutions you may be interested in as well. The first allows mounting the Mega onto a DIN rail, next to traditional industrial control equipment. Besides, the D-1100 from CZH-LABS offers reliable access to the Mega’s pins via screw terminal blocks. And that’s a must-have! Note that reading of the pins’ silkscreen is not easy once the board is in the shell. The other solution is the D-1236 from Electronics-Salon (the old name of CZH-LABS).
This breakout shield, of the same size as the Mega, makes all the pins accessible via screw terminal blocks. The labeling using names, numbers, and colors are quite clear and lowers the risk of wiring mistakes. You can find these solutions, and way more, here.