Electronic – arduino – Can an Arduino use a 12 V relay

arduinorelay

So I wanted to play around with relays and clearly got it wrong even before I got started. I wanted to control a 12 Volt fan – thinking that it would have a capacity of 12 V to control.. But now I know that it takes 12 V input and can control upto 250VAC…

I have ordered some new 5 Volt relays, but want to know how I can use the 12V relay with an arduino _____________? (bear in mind that I'm a newbie)

This is the relay module I bought:
enter image description here


UPDATE

Thank you all so much for finding your time to help me out, I really appreciate it!
First now I found the time to try out your suggestion.

@jippie comment:

..(or Vin on Arduino if you are feeding it from a 12V supply)

got me think about what I really wanted. I wanted to use the 12V power supply to also feed the arduino (hehe..)
– but posting the question I needed to know the anwser to whether an "under"-powered arduino could control a 12V relay.

But first validate that the relay is actually working! So found a 12 V adapter and connected it to a breadboard.

12V adapter
Then connected it to the relay by NC and COM
relay connections
Compiled the Blink code example and hooked it up using Vin, GND and D13
Relay working with 12 V
I then hooked my Arduino to a 9V battery and tried the 5V output
Not working relay with 5V
Unfortunately this did not work..

@Madmanguruman and @Kurt thank you both for your answers – I'm just too newbie to figure out all the things you were talking about.


UPDATE 2

Forgot one more possible combination
Relay not working

This kinda brings me down to these options with my relay:

  • Control something that requires more than 12 Volts, but power the arduino with 12 Volts
  • Use it to control DC gear motors without using and H-bridge and diode (kinda expensive)
  • Use the NC (Normally Closed) and NO (Normally Open) logic to do something neat

All this got me thinking.. If I need to power my Arduino with 12 Volts to control a 12 Volts device – why don't I just connect my device directly to my Arduino ____?

As mentioned many times: I'm a newbie and just want to learn electronics mostly by Learning-by-doing – but without putting myself at risk and breaking things (like my Arduino)

But why would this not work:

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

EDIT:

Controlling 12v DC motorfan with arduino

Firstly, even if a motor or pump or fan (anything with coils inside) is 3V or 5V, do NOT power it directly from the Arduino pins as the Arduino pins can only supply a maximum of 40mA. As per my previous article on Arduino pins, they are not designed to drive a DC motor or coils.


UPDATE 3

Using 9V and Vin also worked 🙂
Using 9V and Vin

So guess the answer is:

  • Yes, but I have to use >= 9V (perhaps lower, but not 5V) and the Vin.

Best Answer

I'll leave the long talks to the other answerers. If the exact module you bought is the one on the picture then:

Connect:

  • GND to GND on Arduino
  • Vcc to 12V (or Vin on Arduino if you are feeding it from a 12V supply)

At this moment I would verify the voltage on pin IN, this should be near 0V with respect to GND, if it is higher than 5V stop here. If it is near 0V, the last step is to connect:

  • IN to the digital output pin you conotrol on Arduino.

So my answer is: If memory serves me right, my answer is: yes you can drive this type of module from Arduino.