3 Ways to power an Arduino Board - Do you know them?

🤩 FREE Arduino Crash Course 👇👇

***Get your Free Trial of Altium PCB design Software***

***Get the code, transcript, challenges, etc for this lesson on our website***

We designed this circuit board for beginners!

SHOP OUR FAVORITE STUFF! (affiliate links)
---------------------------------------------------

Get your Free Trial of Altium PCB design Software
We use Rev Captions for our subtitles

Arduino UNO R3:

Budget Arduino Kits:

Multimeter Options:

Helping Hands:

Soldering Stations:

AFFILIATES & REFERRALS
---------------------------------------------------

FOLLOW US ELSEWHERE
---------------------------------------------------

ARDUINO POWER SECTION SCHEMATIC
In our discussion here, we are going to use an Arduino UNO as the base example – much of what we cover can be extended to other common Arduino boards, but in each case you’ll need to double check for your specific model.

We are going to use the Arduino UNO schematic to inform our discussion – we’ll be looking at the power section.

Arduino Power Section Schematic
It seems like a lot going on – to simplify this a bit further we’ll reduce it down to this block diagram.

arduino power options, USB, Vin, and DC jack with lines to circuit diagram

When you see “USB PORT”, just imagine that’s where you plug your USB cable in, for “DC JACK” – imagine that where you plug your DC Jack in. And for the “VIN PIN”, that just the hole marked Vin on the power rail of an Arduino Board.

On the right side we have the 5V and 3.3V pins. In between we have some components that I’ll explain shortly.

POWERING ARDUINO W/ THE DC JACK
Let’s start with powering an Arduino with the DC jack. Let’s say you hook up a wall wort power supply, or a battery pack to that DC jack – what happens? Per the diagram you can see it powers the 5V regulator on the board.

Schematic of powering arduino with DC jack
What’s so special about 5V? Well 5V is right in the range the microcontrollers on the Arduino board need in order to operate.

Minimum Input voltage Maximum Input voltage Maximum Output current
+5V regulator 6.2V 20V 1A
+3.3V regulator 3.58V 16V 150mA
The 5V regulator requires a min input voltage of 6.2 volts and can take a maximum input voltage of 20V – so the power supply you hook up to your DC jack needs to be in that range for voltage. The sweet spot is more like 7-12 volts, if your power supply is much higher than that, you’re wasting a lot of power on that 5V regulator in the form of heat dissipation.

The DC jack is 2.1mm center-positive plug. It important that the plug you use is center positive. But just in case you accidentally use a center negative plug and reverse the polarity – the circuit has a diode that protects against that.

Now, there’s a lot of details here I am going over rather quickly. We are developing an entire course on powering Arduino, and how to think about your current inventory – it’s currently in production – if you want to learn more about what we offer check out our courses page.

OK – one more thing about that 5V regulator, it can provide up to 1A of current.

CONTINUED…

***About Us:***
This Arduino lesson was created by Programming Electronics Academy. We are an online education company who seeks to help people learn about electronics and programming through the ubiquitous Arduino development board.

***We have no affiliation whatsoever with Arduino LLC, other than we think they are cool.***

[srikarp]

your info gave me this info cleared my many confusions, thank you

[albertortiz]

alright if I understood this video correctly, my circuit should not light on fire:)

[mikekicy]

Unless I'm mistaken, you can also provide power directly to the Arduino via the +5V pin (usually assumed as output +5V, ) provided the source is regulated and protected such as from a reliable phone charger power bank or bench power supply. I did this on a Nano project where my only source was a Li-Ion BMS board (5V / 2A max). Keep in mind not to plug in any additional sources.

[sanwalfarooque]

Amazing video. Well explained. Loved it.

[thTek]

at 5v reg output you have less than 1 amp due to the power lost in the 3.3v regulator, plus the 3.3v bus current consumption...

[Enigma]

I needed to use a regulated 5v external supply to power my project. That also meant that I didn't want USB power to be a problem when programming it, otherwise the two supplies would be clashing with each other. In that case, my only option was to power the Arduino directly from the 5v pin with my external supply (thereby bypassing the 5v regulator) and make a special programming cable with the 5v USB line severed.

[shvideo]

Excellent detailed information. Very useful video. Thank you

[GLH]

Thanks, I’ve been using the 5v out as an in wrongly instead of Vin for years.

[captainahab]

These videos are done so well sometimes i wish i could subscribe again

[barneycarparts]

I bought 5 NANOs from ebay I plugged in a 9VDC wall wart that I found out later turned out to be 13VDC the NANO regulators did not work I had 7.2 VDC at NANO 5V pins LEDs were super bright. NANO ran for 5 days at 7.2VDC and locked up Causing a mis read on a flow switch and burned up a $1K UV Algea Killer bulbs. Tough lesson to learn I can't trust stated specs on Wall warts or the NANO on board Voltage regulators. I reverted to 2.1 AMP 5VDC Apple power blocks and mini USB cords to power the remaining NANOs. I will Switch to a Genuine Arduino Uno for critical projects. Official Arduinos are getting expensive at $27 each but, they are cheaper than UV bulbs.

[mickhurley]

I have 2 different adapters, a 12W 1000mA and 45W 3000mA, each can produce 5V .
Which is the better one to use for an Ardurino project ?

[kyle.riemen]

I have one question about this. I used to feed 5V and Ground to the GPIO Pins and not to the VIN Pin. I also was connected via USB Cable to the PC. Does that mean the 5V Pin never received Power and I was powering the Arduino via USB? Also if I power the Arduino via USB do I still need to connect the ground wire to an external ground or is it grounded with the USB Cable?

[oh_yeah_]

not sure if you are still replying but my question is-
my arduino nano works fine from usb with a phone charger brick 5v-2A now i want to use the same brick for a home automation project where the arduino will be turned on 24/7 and it will power on 1ldr and 1relay from the 5v pin of the nano, what am i dong wrong if any? is there any thing i should be aware of or will it work? like is there any chance that my board will be fried in 1week?

[claudiozanella]

You always should draw the possible current verses on supply leads to make it immediately clear.

[saviididi]

Reminds me of the Spider Man mini games

[buildersmark]

What is the max amperage of the poly fuse before it trips?

[ig_madgaming]

what is the current rate we can apply at Vin? like I have 12v 10Amps SMPS Can I connect this to power my Arduino???

[DesertVox]

I initially thought it was going to talk about battery packs, solar panels or even a modded treadmill to power it.

[jmcalaramo]

Hi! I have a question, would an Arduino Uno work if I connect it to a Buck Converter which is connected to a motorcycle battery? I'm planning to use a motorcycle battery to power an Arduino.

[jeffreycashen]

going by this explanation of plugging power packs or battery packs into the arduino, i unplugged the usb cable from my arduino, i then plugged a bought variable power pack into it, which starts at 9V, the arduino didn't even blink, didn't even show that it had power. I then unplugged the wall power jack and made up a 9V battery pack using 6 'AA' batteries (9.7V). i soldered the ends to a jack plug and plugged it in, i got nothing also. but as soon as i plugged the usb cable back in and attached it to a mobile battery charger pack, it works just fine. What am i doing wrong, please help me ??