I bought one of those handy breadboard power modules that plug straight in at the end, which gives you either 5V or 3.3V at both of the power rails on the breadboard.
I'm wondering if it is possible to connect the one side's +3.3V to the other side's ground, thus connecting the 2 sides in series, so I end up with 8.3V.
If it is possible to take it a step further, do the above, but also keep using the 5V rail on it's own.
It's a little hard to explain, but what this will allow me to do in essence, is to combine the 2 sides in order to have 8.3V to power an arduino directly through the Vin pin, and also use the 5V from the single rail alone, so I can power external components that require 5V.
If this is achievable, it means that I would only need one PSU to power the arduino and components, instead of using the power module's 5V for the components, and also requiring another PSU for the arduino.
In my head this should work, but I'm a little scared to just go ahead and try it, so if someone can confirm or deny this idea I would be very thankful.
That sounds like it could cause a short circuit which could damage something, so don't do it until we have established exactly what you are proposing to do.
Because the arduino can be powered with 5V through usb, but it's too low according to its datasheet to power it through the Vin pin. Datasheet recommends 7-12V.
The documentation from the Arduino project is very unhelpful and misleading on this point. The "5V" pin is the proper way to power the Arduino but you do need to disconnect external 5 V from this pin when connecting to a PC by the USB port on a UNO or Mega 2560. (Not a problem on a Nano/ Pro Mini.) Always have ground conencted to the power supply and your other devices.
What is missing here is an explanation of which Arduino this is?
I suspect a UNO. In general, powering via "Vin" or the "barrel jack" is a very bad idea. My quote as given is a good summary.
The "breadboard power supply" cited is not a very useful device (so why are there seven of that exact one stored in a used and emptied Hommus container in front of me? So I at least know what I am talking about. ).
Its regulator - like that on the UNO/ Nano/ Mega 2560 etc. - has no meaningful heatsink so is unable to provide more than maybe a couple of hundred mA. If you have a "poofter" cable (male-to-male USB) you can connect it to a USB "phone charger" to distribute 5 V and/ or 3.3 V (as the 3.3 V regulator only has to drop 1.7 V).
It is not advisable to provide 5 V power to the "5V" pin of a UNO/ Mega 2560/ Leonardo when you plug the USB into a PC for programming or other communication.
The problem is the sensitivity of the USB port on the PC, no problem with the Arduino at all. And no problem with Nano.
You can power an Arduino using Vin. An Arduino however is not a power supply and you can't draw much power from the 5V pin; and that is where most beginners go wrong. An 16x2 LCD and a relay is basically already too much if memory serves me well.
Actually the efficiency of Linear Regulators (which the boards use) is not good. Buck converters like the LM2596 generally have a higher efficiency than linear regulators.
The clear blunder is not comprehending what the "Vin" or "RAW" terminal is. The regulator on the Arduino UNO/ Nano/ Pro Mini/ Mega2560/ Leonardo/ Pro Micro has very little heatsink, so will not pass very much current (depending on the input voltage and thus, how much voltage it has to drop) before it overheats and (hopefully reversibly) shuts down. It is essentially little more than a novelty provided in the very beginning of the Arduino project when "9V" power packs were common and this was a practical way to power a lone Arduino board for initial demonstration purposes. And even then it was limited because an unloaded 9 V transformer-rectifier-capacitor supply would generally provide over 12 V which the regulator could barely handle.
But you see, once they provided the on-board regulator, they had to keep it in later versions for compatibility, particularly as the UNO format provides for "shields" which have to match the odd placement of the socket headers. It is a "legacy" thing.
Nowadays, 5 V regulated switchmode packs are arguably the most readily available in the form of "Phone chargers" and switchmode "buck" regulators to regulate down from 12 V or other available voltages are cheap on eBay or Aliexpress so these can be fed into the USB connector or (more appropriately) 5 V pin to provide adequate power for most applications. Unfortunately, many tutorials or "instructables" are seriously outdated or misleading and have not been updated to reflect the contemporary situation.
If powering directly from batteries, as long as the battery pack cannot exceed 5.5 V, this must be connected to the 5 V pin.
Thank you for the clarification. I'm currently using the usb port to power my arduino's for all situations, but the reason I created this topic in the first place was to find out if it is possible to combine the 2 sides of a power module in order to avoid using more than 1 psu, because the arduino uses 5V, other components use 9V and some even 12V. It's just a hassle to have a psu for the arduino, another for 12V components, and another or a 9V battery for the 9V components. But I guess there is no easy way? Perhaps using a bunch of different regulators will do the trick, but it's still not as convenient as I hoped for.
I think you can do this: Buy a 12V 5A SMPS (or wall adapter), and use two buck converters - one for 5V and one for 9V. You can then create multiple outputs in parallel from the buck converters and make a power supply yourself. Remember to put all this in a plastic enclosure for safety.
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