xenobie Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 Hello all,I have a project at the moment and everything is to work from a single 12V battery. Now I am using an Arduino which has its own 5V regulator. Since I intend to switch some ICs and a relay, I can't just power everything from this poor 5v regulator. Can I for example have a transistor's base switch on using the output from the uC (Arduino), have the emitter connected to GND, and the collector-relay-coil take voltage directly from the battery?Another similar scenario is to have two 5V regulators (1 on Arduino and 1 for some ICs) both of which taking power from 12V battery and have the Arduino "mix" its 5V with that of the ICs ?? Sorry if this is silly but I know that this might be fatal to some components in certain circumstances.ThanksX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hero999 Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 The most efficient solution is to power the MCU from the regulator and everything else (relays, lights motors etc.) from the 12V. A 5V linear reglator running off 12V is only 42% efficient. Transistors are normally used in the way you've described to enable the MCU to control 12V appliances and don't forget the diode in reverse parallel with the relay coil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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