The series of articles - how to make a robot i want to start with the topic - How to power my robot. Supply of robots with electricity I think is the main issue and before you start doing something else, make yourself aware that this problem is solved. I didn’t mention it in vain, the beginner very often read forums, blogs, various articles, prepare themselves theoretically and when they buy their first arduino, make little devices and wants to test them without connecting it to PC, find out that they has no Battery Holder, or batteries. Or they has no idea how to power simultaneously 5v and 12v electric motors with one and the same battery. It often happens when arduino and a servo motor are powered with one battery. When connecting them you notice that servo motor doesn’t function, the program and the robot behave inadequately. To this concrete please see the article - How to connect my servo to arduino.

All these happens because the partition of energy is settled in a wrong way. In this article we shall answer you the question - How to power my robot.

There are many electrical devices that need power with different voltage. There are sensors which can be powered by 3v and 5v and somethimes there are sensors that need 12v. Servo motors generally use 5 till 7v, though there are some exceptions and there are servo motors that need 12v or even 24v.
Brushle’ motors can be powered from 5 till 24v.

Before you start doing something, buy Battery Holder without fail. They are with one battey, two, four and eight. According to the type of batteries you can get different voltages.

A very useful device is LM2596 Step-Down Power regulator module. It is unique, because up to 2 A it can regulate voltage from 1,5 v up to 35v.

For example, if you have 12v battery and power LCD screen module, any sensor with 1,5v and 12v micro motor, then the scheme would be as follows:

If you have 12v power system and you want to power 12v electrical motor and 7v servo motor.

LM2596 Step-Down Power regulator module will help you to solve many problems. I would advise you to buy many of such modules. It is not so expensive and is of small size. If you belong to people who don’t want to use ready modules and instead want to plan own microcontrollers, for you we plan series of tutorials - how to make pcb modul at home and how to make my universal microcontroller.

You will also need different wires and connectors without fail.

Our next article will be: What is the best microcontroller board for robot.