# Adafruit MAX31856 Universal Thermocouple Amplifier

## Overview

![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/035/936/medium800/sensors_3263_iso_ORIG.jpg?1474576532)

Thermocouples are very sensitive, requiring a good amplifier with a cold-compensation reference, as well as calculations to handle any non-linearities. For a long time we've suggested our MAX31855K breakout, which works great but is only for K-type thermocouples. Now we're happy to offer a great new thermocouple amplifier/converter that can handle just about _any_ type of thermocouple, and even has the ability to give you notification when the temperature goes out of range, or a fault occurs. Very fancy!

This converter communicates over 4-wire SPI and can interface with any **K** , **J** , **N** , **R** , **S** , **T** , **E** , or **B** type thermocouple

![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/035/937/medium800/sensors_thumvb.jpg?1474576549)

This breakout does everything for you, and can be easily interfaced with any microcontroller, even one without an analog input. This breakout board has the chip itself, a 3.3V regulator and level shifting circuitry, all assembled and tested. Comes with a 2 pin terminal block (for connecting to the thermocouple) and pin header (to plug into any breadboard or perfboard). We even added inline resistors and a filter capacitor onboard for better stability, as recommended by Maxim. [Goes great with our 1m K-type thermocouple](http://www.adafruit.com/products/270) or any other thermocouple, really!

- Works with any **K** , **J** , **N** , **R** , **S** , **T** , **E** , or **B** type thermocouple
- **-210°C to +1800°C output in 0.0078125° resolution** - note that many thermocouples have about ±2°C to ±6°C accuracy or worse depending on the temperature and type, so the resolution will be a lot better than the accuracy!
- Internal temperature reading
- 3.3 to 5v power supply and logic level compliant!
- SPI data requires any 4 digital I/O pins.

![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/035/938/medium800/sensors_3263_quarter_ORIG.jpg?1474576569)

- [Next Page](https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-max31856-thermocouple-amplifier/pinouts.md)

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