avalon66:
If I pull out the red wire to the arduino 5v pin and connect the red wire from the power supply to the 5v pin on the arduino, how do I then connect directly to the display, use 2 wires??
Yes. You have to.
avalon66:
I knew something would be wrong withe way I have it connected and working.i am not seeing any problems, and I have not had it connected this way before. It was however connected to the vcc pin on the display, Then there was a problem.
Vin is the input power. I will admit the 5V pin is a bit confusing as it has two purposes. 5V is either 5V output when 7-12V is supplied to Vin or the barrel jack; OR 5V is 5V input to the board. As it is, putting the 5V power supply into the Vin pin is only causing you a voltage drop across the regulator that is between the Vin and 5V pins, that doesn't have enough voltage supplied to operate properly. Essentially, you are using the device (voltage regulator) out of its specified range.
All of the issues you describe point to one thing. The Arduino and display are not correctly connected to the power source. You need to pick one of the three power input points to use:
- Barrel Jack
- Vin
- 5V
You can pick only one of the three to connect to. The other two will be unused.
If you have a 7-12V power supply, you can connect that to either Vin or the barrel jack. But you CANNOT connect the display to the 5V (output) pin, there isn't enough power.
If you have a (good) 5V power supply, you can connect that to both the display and to the Arduino 5V pin. You CANNOT connect that to Vin/barrel pin. Then you can connect the display directly to the power supply. Yes, the connection is a "V" on both the 5V and ground of the power supply.
The power supply 5V should be connected directly to:
- Arduino 5V
- Breadboard +
- LED display Vcc
Ground should follow the same rules. This is the proper way to distribute power in most designs, direct connection of the power/ground pins of the load directly to the power source. This simplifies trouble shooting. You are now 48 posts into fighting a basic design technique.
If you have it working, then good luck on it staying that way. If you want to substitute luck for experience, then open your mind and update your design.