Arduino Robot battery power: motors, servos, and DC converters for Beginners

TL;DR? use DC-DC converters to get the voltage you want/need, and don't skimp on the amps! Multiple converters can/should be wired in parallel off the battery "mains", as if you were plugging multiple household appliances into a wall outlet. If you are using multiple batteries to get more amps, avoid connecting them to one another, as they will try and charge/drain one another.

I've been getting a lot of questions about how to power arduinos and motors for robot projects so I put this together quickly. I hope to make a shorter version, but I haven't posted in a while, so I did this quick.

other DC converters from amazon and ebay

[mdgrown]

Thank you for these vids man. Just getting into it. I came from coding and just discovered Arduino and am obsessed. But the battery and motors is a brand new aspect for me.

[anshzota]

Really appreciate this. I am fairly experienced in this field and still found this video very educating. Keep up the good work.

[renegaed]

Such a good video. Very few people are explaining it so clearly. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and insight.

[noahstonemusic]

Really helpful video, you explained everything so clearly and simply. This all makes much more sense now! Thanks :)

[mattergain]

This was really useful. I still have questions about implementing charging into the circuit but that helped me understand a lot

[ritwik]

Hey, thanks for the video. Great advice. I made the unfortunate mistake of trying to power 3 servos from my uno R3 and fried it. Couldn't even figure out external power supplies. Thank you for this.

[tompayne]

Great video. Next time I'd love to hear practical difference between DC motors and servos. When do you use one versus the other. Cool stuff!

[daveschall]

Giving it a watch, no matter what I watch I can't figure out servos and RC controls I need them for my special effects and animatronics, not RC cars but its basically the same use

[patrickmackay]

Good :) is the 9V entry have the positive inside or outside of the pin connector ? (polarity + in the center or - in the center of the arduino ? )

[hv]

Would it be feasible to design a kit of Arduino + servo + battery + linear actuator and the put together an iPhone app so they I could, for example, open and close a drawer ?

[cavenagy]

Question? I know I can measure voltage using the A0 pin on the Arduino(and read it on the serial monitor), but with the options you provide, it doesn't look possible, do you have any recommendation?

[RoadHater]

Can you show how to use a BMS with a lipo in this fashion?

[RetroEcoChicken]

heads up to people struggling with a kit, in my kit my robot car battery package for 6 a++ batteries gave no power... tried putting a 9volt battery in the pluss and minus trough the start and finish of the box and my robot worked.

[alpcan]

How can i supply power for 4 dc motors from 1 battery?

[DirectorMChannel]

What if i would have connected the lipo battery directly to the arduino and tried to run it? without the ubec and stuff woudl it work?

[deeguy]

I want to know how to supply several different voltages to a robot such as 5V to a 433Mhz receiver and to the servos, plus 9V to DC motors and 6V to the micro. I have three separate batteries and I would like to have just a single battery.

[ToptenacademyEs]

Hi! Great video, thank you very much for your explanation. I'm actually trying to get my mind around something, maybe you can help me out find the cause. I have an arduino uno, a motor shield that is mounted directly onto the arduino, two dc motors (6-12 v is the voltage range each) and two lipo batteries, 11.1 v and 3000 mah each connected to the motor shield supplying 22 v for the motors. I also have a bluetooth module, an HC05 connected. The thing is that when I turn it on the bluetooh module fries. I've tried to power the bluetooth from a different source, but now the arduino fries when I power it on. Any idea about the cause? Any help will be highly appreciated! Thanks!

[jeffl]

What motor drivers are you holding at 15:35? Struggling to find stuff that isn't crazy expensive.

[samfenimore]

How about an Arduino DC motor/Servo Shield? how do these work?

[simeonvaloisbeaudin]

thumbs up if you're here because of an engineering class