I cannot seem to find a good solution on this forum to the above problem in the title.
I want to be able to power either a nano (preferably) or an UNO that controls a single micro servo. But I understand that to power a Nano I need a 7-12V power supply but a 5-6V power supply for a micro servo.
I was warned to not run any servo motors on the 5V pin since the Arduino is not rated for that.
I want these to be powered indefinitely from a wall plug (no batteries). Single wall plug.
What are the missing pieces/wiring/components I need to get this operational? I truly do not prefer to plug two things into the wall because I want this to scale. How can I accomplish this?
I've heard of decoupling and downregulating, but no clear guides on how to do so.
Is this possible? What if I get a servo that requires 7V+? Would that make it easier?
The simplest way to power your setup is to use a 5V (cellphone) charger and connect to USB. The 5V will be available on the 5V pin and you can power your servo from that pin; my little servo that came with a kit happily runs on 5V.
You can simply test this, even by using the PC's USB as a power source.
If you use a 7-12V power supply on Vin, the current for the board as well as for the servo will go through the on-board voltage regulator to produce the 5V; this 5V regulator has limited power capabilities because there is hardly any cooling for it so the setup might work or not; you will have to find the specs for your micro servo to see how much current it uses). If the requirements are too high, you can use a buck converter to reduce the 7-12V to 5-6V for your servo.