Multiple Modules - Power insufficient?

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello everybody,

I'm lost with my Arduino project and need your help.
My project is part of a game. It is a station where players have to bring a progress bar to 100% by pressing a button. When done, the station reports this via WiFi to the base.
Connected to the Arduino are:
1x OLED Display 128 * 64
1x DFPlayer Mini (MP3 sound module) with SD card and speaker
1x ESP-01 (with ESP8266) wifi module
5x push buttons

All modules are at the same GND.

The problem actually occurs as soon as I plug the ESP01 into the circuit. After switching on (power via USB cable in power bank) a cracking noise comes out of the speaker and nothing else happens. I googled and read that I need to implement capacitors in the circuit to stabilize the power supply. Said and done. I noticed that with every capacitor (between 0.47μf and 470μf) the stability got better. I put them in front of each module and one in front of the speaker. However, it always comes back to reboots, especially as soon as the sound module does something.
Unfortunately, I am not an electrician and have so far just placed capacitors where I thought it would make sense, without really understanding what I'm doing there.
I suppose all the modules together pull too much amps and the circuit does not go along with that. The capacitors buffer the whole thing.
I would like to know if I am already on the right path and what a clean, reliable solution for my problem could look like, without further simply (almost) arbitrarily distributing capacitors.

Thank you in advance :slight_smile:

LG,

Lukas

I quickly drafted the circuit (I left out the push buttons). Also the WIFI module isn't accurate. See the second picture.

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2

Please make your images visible here. See this Simple Image Guide

Of the bunch I reckon the ESP8266 is the most power-hungry. Try powering it with a pair of AA alkaline cells (3v) with the battery GND connected to the Arduino GND.

...R

3

The problem is that I need it to be powered by a single power source, ideally a standard 5v USB power bank. Therefore I need a solution to properly distribute power and have enough buffer when all modules run at the same time.

4

Jables90:
The problem is that I need it to be powered by a single power source, ideally a standard 5v USB power bank. Therefore I need a solution to properly distribute power and have enough buffer when all modules run at the same time.

Post your wiring diagram so we what you have in mind.

You could use an LD33 / LD1117 to drop the 5v to 3.3v.

And try the batteries anyway just so you can be sure you are addressing the actual problem.

...R