Hello,
I am attempting to build a 'Fox-Hunt' HAM radio transmitter. Ive gotten everything working while supplied on USB power through my computer. After building the circuit to supply power through the barrel jack, I chose a DC-DC buck converter to get my 12V battery power supply down to 9V2A. I believed this was more than sufficient to operate the arduino and relay module but it appears I can only get my arduino to respond to my DTMF commands when plugged into USB. I found this unusual and I do not know if it stems from the power situation or rather integration through my computer. Can anyone advise what my best option to troubleshooting this would be? Thank you.
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When you power via Vin or the barrel, power goes through a voltage regulator that has virtually no heatsink. The voltage difference (9V -5V) multiplied by the current that the system uses is converted into heat that needs to be dissipated by the voltage regulator and it will battle with that without a heatsink.
Adjust your buck converter to 5V and feed into the 5V pin. Note that if you do so, you are advised not to power the board via USB; you either need to hack a USB cable and cut the Vcc or disconnect the buck converter from the 5V when you have a need for Serial or upload.
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Can you post a schematic, be sure to show how you are powering the transmitter. Remember a Power Supply the Arduino is NOT! I always prefer to power via the Vin with about 8V because of the extra filtering etc the I get. Could you also post links to technical information on the hardware devices. Have fun with the Hunt!
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Thank you for the response. Im starting to think it might be related to the grounding of the power input. I did attempt to troubleshoot the arduino board by powering it from a 5v USB auto adapter and still had no luck. Is there any possibility the Arduino board logic is 'calling to' one of the numerous .h files included in the sketch through USB? I highly doubt this is the case, but any DTMF code transmitted via another radio to activate several different responses calls to a .h file with the frequency and assignment to each DTMF code.
If it is more likely a grounding or power issue, I will further investigate. The relay module VCC is plugged into the 5v pin on the arduino. Perhaps I will need to externally power the relay module through the buck converter.
Thank you for the patience, this is a newer more difficult project than im used to!
I only have a hand drawn schematic at the moment. The entire circuit is powered by a 12v Lead Acid Battery. The Radio transmitter is a Baofeng UV5R with an automotive battery bypass (Think cigarette lighter plug with a cable leading directly into the radio, no battery pack) which works fine. The Buck converter is connected to a bus bar as all other peripherals are. Everything gets power just fine. I may need to experiment with the power input further for the Arduino. Ive attempted out of troubleshooting to power the arduino via USB plugged into an automotive outlet to 5v plug (like what you would charge a phone with) and it yielded the same result as the barrel jack. Reading up on another thread it appears this may be related to a lack of sufficient grounding for the arduino? Thank you!
No, the Arduino runs a compiled sketch.
If that adapter is powerful enough, that would exclude the voltage regulator.
That would be fine; make sure that all power related connections are also in there.
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