Arduino boards can be powered in several ways. To maintain a safe limit of current and voltage is a big concern of every Arduino enthusiast as slight increase in current or voltage can cause Arduino boards to fry, hence ruining your day. Positive side for Arduino is it has a great range of flexibility for powering through multiple sources. While giving input power to Arduino some limits need to be considered let’s discuss how safe an Arduino is over a 12V of power input.
Is It Safe to Power Arduino with 12V
Yes, it is safe to power Arduino with 12V, Arduino has onboard voltage regulators that reduce incoming voltage to a safe limit of 5V. In fact, it is recommended to power an Arduino with a regulated 9V-12V DC supply through a DC barrel jack or Arduino Vin pin. However powering Arduino with more than 12V can cause Arduino to heat up because Arduino circuitry runs over 5V any voltages given over 5V is regulated according to it and extra voltages are dissipated in the form of heat.
According to the Arduino datasheet it can handle up to 20V but after 16V Atmel no longer guarantees working of the Atmega328p microcontroller chip.
Note: Make sure to power Arduino with a regulated 12V supply an unregulated 12V supply can reach up to 16V or more damaging Arduino voltage regulators. Also, don’t draw more than 100 Amps of current using the 5V output pin of Arduino while Arduino is getting power from 12V supply. It can reset the Arduino board Automatically and it will remain in that state until cool enough to work again. To get more insight about Arduino temperature requirements give this article a read by clicking here.
Arduino Voltage Requirements
Arduino boards can operate between a voltage range of 6 to 20V. When supplying less than 7V using external supply, Arduino output voltage may become less than 5V which can cause an unstable Arduino board. While using voltage more than 12V can heat up voltage regulators. So, the optimum range of powering Arduino is somewhere between 7V-12V.
If you want to know about individual voltage requirements of three sources: USB, DC Barrel jack and Vin pin click here.
To read how much current Arduino can supply click here.
Conclusion
Arduino can be powered up easily with 12V, but it should be regulated so it doesn’t cause Arduino to heat up. Arduino can withstand 12V if voltage regulators don’t heat up while converting 12V to 5V, so conclusion to the article is YES, it is safe to power Arduino with 12V.
