Powering Arduino Uno

Hi guys,

The main ideea of this post is to ask you if its a good ideea to power up the arduino with this kind of battery:

or with 4 of these in series connected:

Thx:)

That 12V battery is for very low power device or devices that only run a few seconds at a time. It will run your Arduino but not for long.

Those lithium coin cells will also run your Arduino, but not for long.

For portable operation a reasonably cost effective power source is 3 AA cells in series connected directly to the +5V pin (not Vin). This bypasses the voltage regulator which throws away some power.

You will also want to put the processor to sleep as often and as deeply as possible.

Well i`m trying to find the best solution, i need a portable power supply for a gps based vehicule, so the ideea with

put the processor to sleep as often and as deeply as possible

i dont think is so good in my case.

What powers the vehicle?

Currently all the power is taken from arduino, and dont think this is the best solution, i guess i could power up the ardumoto shield separately :-?

How big is your vehicle? If it is much larger than a pack of cards you will probably need a lot more power than a tiny replaceable battery can supply. Perhaps a rechargeable battery pack such as used for RC cars or a cordless drill would be appropriate.

My vehicle looks exactly like this:

( 60x160 dimensions), and on it near the Gearbox its the arduino uno with 3 shields(ardumoto, xbee, and gps ). and there should be the power supply too. so i guess that i`m looking for a small portable power to fit in it and supply the needed voltage to run all 3 shields and motors.

Btw, thx for the replays :slight_smile:

I'd use a 4 x or 5 x AA battery holder and put in rechargeable NiMH AA cells. The resulting voltage (4.8 or 6.0) can be hooked directly to the Vin pin of the Arduino. I'd go with 4 cells because some add-on devices might not be able to take 6V safely. The 4.8v should be just right for the electric motors and should be enough for any 5V device. For any 3.3V devices you can get that from the 3.3V pin of the Arduino.

The resulting voltage (4.8 or 6.0) can be hooked directly to the Vin pin of the Arduino.

Too low a voltage for Vin. Arduino spec for Vin:

Input Voltage (recommended) 7-12V
Input Voltage (limits) 6-20V

retrolefty:

The resulting voltage (4.8 or 6.0) can be hooked directly to the Vin pin of the Arduino.

Too low a voltage for Vin. Arduino spec for Vin:

Input Voltage (recommended) 7-12V
Input Voltage (limits) 6-20V

OOPS! You're right. I meant to say "directly to the +5v pin". Sorry.

I'm using a 8.4V RC battery to Vin.