So I've been working on an arduino based automatic plant watering system. The original instruct able that served as my inspiration is here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Automatic-Watering-System-For-Plants/. I've tried to make it larger scale however. I would like to control three motor drivers (l298 dual hbridge) that would power 6 small water pumps (~9V).
I've tried just coming out of the vin pin on the arduino. It powers one pump sufficiently however only the one.
Can anyone shed light as to how I can power this all up. This lego/electronics project has been quite some time in the making and i would like to just be able to finish it!But I know nothing about power and all the like.
Other than supplying sufficient amperage, the only other Option you have is to not turn on more than one pump at a time. This may be a viable Option because the plants probably only get water for a small fraction of time. Even then, if one pump is taking all the battery can give, powering six of them (regardless of at the same time or one after the other) is going to run that battery down fast.
I've tried just coming out of the vin pin on the arduino. It powers one pump sufficiently however only the one.
Motors generate a lot of electrical noise and can cause the Arduino to reset or malfunction.
You should always power motors separately, using either batteries or a power brick from a game or laptop. The L298 motor drivers have separate terminals for the motor power supply -- use them.
The L298 also needs 5V for the logic. You can provide than from the Vin terminal of the Arduino.
Do your pumps need to be variable speed or reversible? Are you using store bought driver boards? If so many have 5V logic regulators on board, can you post a link for your drivers?
Most water pumps these days are sealed BLDC units with built-in controller - you only need to supply
power. They are very quiet too, I'd avoid having to use any motor controllers at all and just switch
them with MOSFETs.