what power supply is very good for arduino if i'm about to power it 24/7 ?
do i need to consider using regulated/unregulated power supplies ?
You only want to power the Arduino or the entire application.
I have something like this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-Stock-DC-12-24V-Universal-Regulated-Switching-Power-Supply-for-LED-Strip-CCTV-/151123354933?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Test_Measurement_Equipment_ET&var=&hash=item232fa76535
to my application. Is regulated an supply sufficient amount of current for all the devices (pumps, fans, shield, etc.) that I'm using.
If you only want to power the Arduino board, maybe you can find something easier (or cheaper), but with less current too.
What is your Arduino?
The sort that luisilva suggests - metal cased, ventilated ("open frame" - need to be in a large protective housing) switchmode supplies - are the preferred sort for reliability as they run cool, they are sufficiently open for the capacitors in particular not to be heated excessively by the other components and the capacitors tend to be the most unreliable components.
It is particularly preferable (though difficult to verify) that it includes an over-voltage "crowbar" to protect against "running wild" and failing to regulate to the specified voltage.
If you are going to feed Vin on the Arduino, you would prefer to have a 9V supply - but it clearly depends on what else you need to supply. If you are only operating 5V components, a single fully regulated (according to the above criteria) 5V supply can be connected directly to Vcc.
I use these all the time.
5V 1A & 2A supplies
http://www.dipmicro.com/store/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=518
7.5V 1A if you are feeding the barrel jack on an Uno.
Most of my designs leave off the regulator (and if I have one in the design, I don't install, and just jumper over it) and run off 5V directly.
hi everyone ,, actually this is my setup ... i need to power this 24/7 ON .
what power supply do i need for this ? regulated ?
pls consider the power supply for the components inside the BLUE BOX only
and also, can i use a regulated 12v 5A power supply to power the arduino from the Vin?
you are only going to use outputs (including the "Vcc" terminal on the board) for the optocouplers on the relay boards, you can feed Vin from a 12V supply. One 12V supply at 1A or so should be sufficient to power the relays themselves, but you may use a heavier supply to power the LED strips as well.
urbanmiles:
and also, can I use a regulated 12v 5A power supply to power the Arduino from the Vin?
So, that should be OK.
by the way, what is the maximum ampere that i can supply to the arduino uno if i'm going to use 12v ?
it is not a matter of what is supplied to the UNO board; of itself it consumes relatively little current and therefore minimal heating of the regulator at 12V input. As long as you are not supplying more than a few tens of milliamps (total) from output pins and/ or using the 5V output to power other things, it should be OK.