Arduino Stack Exchange
Arduino Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [safety]

The safety tag is for the well-being of the people and objects around you, and yourself.

The safety tag is for the well-being of the people and objects around you, and yourself.

Some general precautions for your Arduino:

  • Don't under/over power your Arduino
  • Don't pull more than 40 mA on most boards from one digital pin
  • Don't apply more than 5V to any pin (except VIN)
  • Don't change a circuit while the Arduino is powered

Some general precautions for you/the people around you:

  • Don't apply mains to your Arduino.
  • When powering high voltages with a relay, make sure to cover and seal any wires that might be connected to the high voltages.
  • Arduino not to be used as a flotation device. Really, don't get your Arduino or any other part of your setup wet.
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Arduino USB Power vs External Power Supply

Why is the Arduino able to accept ~5V from the USB, but requires a min of 7V when using an external power supply?
Nyxynyx
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What happens to the Arduino if you don't use a resistor with an LED?

Making a blinking light seems to be one of the most common beginner projects with Arduino. A typical approach is to connect an LED + resistor (in series) to an IO pin, and connect the other end to ground. In code, you make the pin an output, and…
Peter Bloomfield
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How to prevent breaking my Arduino by mistake?

What is the best practice to make my Arduino circuit more robust against prototyping mistakes (like shorting pins)? I don't want the controller to release its blue magic smoke while experimenting with it, what precautions can I make while designing…
jippie
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How cold or hot can my Arduino Uno get?

The Arduino Uno Page doesn't say the temperatures that it can operate in. I'm thinking about placing it outdoors. How can I make sure my Arduino Uno is safe in weather that can reach -20 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit? (-26 to 40 degrees Celsius).
Anonymous Penguin
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How do I erase the memory of the Arduino Uno?

I'm just a tinkerer learning Arduino with my son and I was surprised that when I plugged the USB cord back in to the Arduino the program was still running and I thought to myself, "it's a good thing I didn't just blow anything up." So, what's the…
Peter Turner
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How do I figure out if my board is approaching end of life?

I have a uno that I have been using for 3 years now. I will be using it again in a rather critical project in which failure on the part of the board could be rather expensive and dangerous. So, I would like to be sure that the board is not…
asheeshr
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Washable, Wearable Tech with Arduino

Question: How does one prepare clothing with embedded electronics for washing? Background: There are several Arduino boards/clones that are designed for "wearable tech." (For example, the Lilypad.) Wearable tech with LED light patterns,…
apnorton
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What I should be aware before I touch my Arduino?

Before you start to mess with a computer there are basic guidelines to be aware of, such as turn the power off and watch out for static electricity. What guidelines should I be aware of when I work with an Arduino board if I don't want to harm…
totymedli
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Reasons why it is not OK to connect a relay directly from an Arduino digital pin

After looking into various schematics on controlling a relay via an Arduino, I have noticed that, most of the time, transistors are used to switch the separate supply into the relay coil rather than directly supplying the relay with the 5-Volt…
DorkOrc
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Can I program a 3.3v chip on a 5v board?

I bought a Gertboard a while ago, and one of the features it has on-board is an ATMega328 (DIP). However, since the Gertboard is designed for use with the Raspberry Pi, it only operates at 3.3v, so the clock speed is limited to ~12MHz. Programming…
Peter Bloomfield
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How can I differentiate between multiple circuits?

I'm building a puzzle for an escape room. I want to give the user 6 wires and 6 terminals, then confirm that they've connected the correct wires to the correct terminals (one-to-one). My first (successful) attempt to implement this puzzle was to…
Jonathan Dautrich
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Can you fry an arduino with nothing plugged in to it?

I only get to work on my arduino every few weeks, so sometimes and get interrupted a lot by small children, so if I completely forget what is on the firmware, then I unplug the pins (because I haven't got anything soldered on there) should I be 100%…
Peter Turner
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Can I corrupt my Arduino if it's unplugged during an upload?

When messing around with code and uploading a sketch to my Arduino board, I almost accidentally pulled out the USB cord. Everything is fine, but then I started thinking what would've happened if I had pulled it out. How safe is avrdude? Could it…
Anonymous Penguin
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9v adapter burned out Leonardo style board

My first experience with Arduino ended in a tragedy. I bought a Leonardo from ebay and upon arrival, attached it to my laptop. Programmed a simple blink demo with the onboard LED. It started working. Then detached it from USB and plugged in a 9v…
Helium
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How to remove SD card safely

I’m constructing an arduino based sytem that uses a SD card and I’m looking for a way to safely remove the card from the system during operation. One way would probably be to turn of the arduino before removal of the SD card, but that is not…
NoobPointerException
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