hey everyone,
I just bought my first Arduino (Uno) for my final project in the university,
and i have one question for this microcontroller:
How many current and voltage the Arduino can get at the maximum?
(because i gonna plug him to an battery and i need to know what his limit currect and voltage hw can get)
i really appreciate for the help
Hi,
While it might seem like a simple enough question - the answer really isn't easy to provide unless you have something in mind that you want to do with the Arduino. For example, while the Arduino itself is limited to the power consumption of the board and the power it can output via the IO pins there's scope for the board to control your project without actually powering all of it directly which means your battery pack might need to be far larger than that for the Arduino itself.
For the most part a 9V battery clip or the USB interface connected to your PC will power most beginners projects. But after that...the sky's the limit.
I have a collection of old mobile phone power adapters I use for a lot of projects - mostly 9V ones running via the 2.1mm power jack, or USB ones powering it via the interface.
Hope this helps. What sort of projects do you have in mind?
Geoff
The easiest way to power the Arduino is via the USB connector that you use to program it.
You can also provide a steady DC voltage of around 4.5V - 5V connected directly to the 5V pin and ground pin. That corresponds to three 1.5V non-rechargeable batteries or four 1.2V rechargeable batteries.
You can also supply a voltage in the range 7.5V - 12V via the DC power jack. That is a convenient way to power it from a wall wart.
The Arduino itself takes about 50mA (which is a tiny amount) but any additional devices such as LEDs you add will increase this. As a rough guide, the Arduino will only support a maximum of about 20mA per pin, and about 500mA in total for the whole thing.
hello again,
at first, thnx for the answers to my question.
second, my project at the university is to build a traffic measurment, that include: battery, microcontroller and 2 sensors for the identify the vehicles.
so i need to know what's the voltage and current supply i need to supply to my system (the sensors worked on +10DC [v]).
i need to connect the battery to the sensor and to the sensors for a day (24hrs) and measure the speeds.
i think i will use no more than 3 or 4 ports (for inputs) in the Arduino.
so now, how many voltage and current i need to supply to my system??
is 10-12[v] of battery gonna to the job for this?
have i need to build an electronic cycles for the Arduino Voltage and current??
thnx a lot again.
What are the sensors - do you have a datasheet you can share a link to?
If you have all the sensors its a few minutes work to measure their current consumptions
with a multimeter (probably easier than trawling all the datasheets).
yes, i have a datasheet of the sensors:
if someone can tell me what's the current consumption of the sensor this help me for sure!
thnx!!
ozorea:
yes, i have a datasheet of the sensors:
http://sensorstrade.com/media/pdf/78285/sick-wlt280l-2n1536-datasheet.pdfif someone can tell me what's the current consumption of the sensor this help me for sure!
thnx!!
From the datasheet link you posted:
Supply voltage: 10 V DC ... 30 V DC 1)
Ripple: ? 3 Vpp 2)
Power consumption: ? 70 mA 3)
So it requires a DC voltage anywhere from 10vdc to 30vdc and consumes 70 ma or less.
I just bought my first Arduino (Uno) for my final project in the university,
[soapbox] Sorry guys, "final project???" "university??" What is the course?
Were microcontrollers included in your course?
Read the specification sheet, or at least show that you have had a look?
Surely at the level in the course you are you know how to extract info from a specification sheet.
Your University should have all that info, or a way to get it available to you, ask a tutor or lecturer, that way they know you are trying to get the info without just cut and paste.
Your project should have a proposal sheet that you submitted to your supervisor , or they supplied to you, depending on who's idea it was.
That would have been worth posting to indicate the scope of the project.
[\soapbox]
Tom.... 
Tom, I already "leaf" the datasheet of the sensors.
maybe you didn't get something.. i build a machine. it's a project i work on in my university, my supervisor isn't know anything about those devices (and none about the microcontroller).
anyway, i know the sensor need minimum of 10 Dc volt to start work, but in the spec sheet there is nothing about the current i need to supply to the sensor (if wrote about the power how can i conclude about the current? (70mA/10V ???))
moreover, i more intresting about the current and the voltage i need to supply to the Arduino Uno! if i gonna use in 3-4 ports that connect to the sensot and to the battary, how many currect/volage i need to supply?
maybe the question is sound silly but the i have just 2 sensors that cost about 500$ (to the univesity) and i don't have "second chance", so i don't want to burn them to death
I respect yours help to me!!
thnx
Hi,
Since the sensors are a higher voltage than the Uno you won't be powering them from the Uno so the power consumption will be the Arduino and whatever else you have in this project. For a discussion on standard Arduino power consumption, check here but there's also lots of discussion on minimising power consumption too - including this one by Nick Gammon.
While the sensor power will come from a 10V or higher source, the Arduino is protected from needing to interface with a 10V line by an open collector output on the sensors. Rather than providing a voltage for the Uno to sense, this pulls the output to 0V when active and relies on the Uno providing the "high" voltage for the default off state. Here's a description of an open collector output. For an explanation of the digital IO pins which explains usage of pull-up resistors, including the internal pull-ups, see here.
So back to the power consumption of the Arduino - what else will be in your project that it will be powering? Is there a display, etc? If not, the current drawn will be approx 50mA for 5-9V based on Nick's article linked above.
Cheers!
Geoff
Hi, the senor is a SICK brand, you couldn't have picked a better manufacturer, however their labeling of the connections can be misleading.
I would be getting info from SICK, or local representative about the product, the current <=70mA means that it is dependent on the power supply voltage, also it is the current for the sensor on its own.
If the rep is work his wages he will/should give you all the info on applications and connections.
The outputs are open collector so when you connect them to the arduino, you will need to turn the pullup resistors ON, or fit external resistors to the provide collector current.
Tom......
strykeroz - my system include 2 sensors that will be connect to a battery (10-12 DC [v]) and the output of the sensor will connect to the Arduino's ports.. i think i need to plan a circuit that decrease the current between the sensors and the microcontroller to avoid from destroyed the ports (if i read correctly, the max currect to the port are <20mA).
In addition i plan to connect a micro SD card memory to the Arduino (there i'll save my data that i'll get from the Arduino calculation).
( ( i have a socket that connect between the Arduino and the memory ) ).
Read the links I provided. There is no output current FROM your sensors at all. More accurately the power for the sensor output is provided by the Arduino and due to the size of your pull-up resistor that will be very small. The internal pull ups are 20,000 Ohms so you can see the current is already limited to very safe/low levels at a quarter of a milliamp if you use those without choosing an external one.