Did you read the review of the display on the link you posted? Maybe the problems that customer describes are also due to the placement of that component?
I’ll see how it goes. Thank you
Ok. So I done the soldering. Was easier than I thought. Because I used a solder station with magnifying glass. And used flux gel.
Now I am stuck trying to provide 5 volts to the two break beam sensors (roughly 20mA x2 40mA, I think). And two, 2 digit, seven segment displays (roughly 320mA x2 = 640mA, I think). So around estimated 700mA. The problem is each component (x6 components. Two displays and four sensors (transmitter and receiver), has a +5 wire and - wire. So I have 6 red + wires and 6 - black wires. Obviously I can not plug all of these wires into the Arduino. I think the Ardunio can provide around 800mA. So I don’t want to max it out. And I don’t want to twist all the wires together and put them into the Arduino 5 volt output right. I was thinking about powering the Arduino via the 12 volt barrel jack. What is the best safest option please. I read about using a buck converter, but not sure how this would help. Like would I wire the buck converter into the 5 volt Arduino output. And how would that effect the current draw. I also thought about using a bread board. But again, not sure how to go about that. Would I use a wall mounted 5 volt power supply into the bread board. Thank you
Power supply
I would not power everything from the Arduino's 5 V pin or via the onboard regulator.
A regulated 5 V power supply is the simplest solution. Connect all displays and sensors directly to that supply, and connect the Arduino GND to the same GND.
Breadboard
A breadboard is only a convenient way to distribute the 5 V and GND connections to all your modules. It does not change the voltage or increase the available current.
Buck converter
You only need a buck converter if your power source is higher than 5 V (for example 12 V). In that case:
12 V supply → Buck converter → 5 V for the displays, sensors and Arduino.
Do not connect a buck converter to the Arduino's 5 V pin.
Thank you for this. This sounds like the best idea. The only thing is, 5 volt wall plug in power supplies only have a barrel type plug. Like this
So I don’t know how to split mate 6 + wires into the “barrel” connector. Its like I need a spreader terminal block with 6 outputs and 1 input that I plug the 5 volt barrel plug into. I can not seem to find anything. But it must be a common thing to do.
If you know of a component that will do this please can you share a link.
Thank you again
I'd simply cut the barrel plug off and use the two wires directly. Since you've already made good progress with soldering, that could be a good next practical exercise.
The wires are often red (+5 V) and black (GND), but always verify them with a multimeter before connecting anything.
I probably wouldn't look for a special "power splitter" board.
A small stripboard (Veroboard) would work well for this. You can solder all the +5 V connections to one copper strip and all the GND connections to another, effectively creating your own power distribution board. It's inexpensive and useful to have for many future projects.
Thats what I was thinking as well. Thank you again
You are welcome!
More like 112mA each, so 224mA for two
Total = 224 + 80 = 304mA
Which Arduino are you using?
I hope not. Each digit appears to be driven by a 74hc595 shift register chip. Those have a limit of 70mA across all outputs combined. Your 4 digits should draw no more than 280mA in total. If they draw more than that, I don't expect them to have long lives!
EDIT:
These appear to be the series resistors for the segments and they are 470 Ohms. Each of those 2 small components with 8 pins contains 4x 470R resistors.
Assuming the led segment forward voltage is about 1.8V, then the current per segment would be (5-1.8)/470 = 7mA. with all 16 segments lit (including the 2x dots) you would see around 110mA, which is close to the figure given by @jim-p .
This is the strange thing about the Uno form factor. It's amazingly popular despite being far from practical for most Arduino projects.
That's why you were recommended a Nano in an earlier post. A Nano doesn't have any more pins than Uno, but it is compatible with breadboards and stripboards for building your prototype and final circuits. With breadboards and protoboard, you can have as many ground and 5V wires as you need.
Exactly what I wanted. I just could not find them. Thank you very much
That was Chat GPT so I doubt it was right. I trust real people with real experience more. Thank you
Thank you. I’m using the Uno R4 Minima.
Then another option is to use a 9V power supply connected to the Minima barrel jack and power everything from the Minima 5V output
Will be simpler all around.
Maybe not, see post #39