My team is creating a solar powered water filtration system. We were going to implement an arduino board into our project. the goal is to create a self running system that will have a timer to run UV lighting for a specified amount of time. We need to be able to work at a low voltage and keep price to an absolute minimum. Which arduino board is best for us? We were briefly looking at the arduino mini and arduino nano. THANKS so much for all the help!!
UV sterilization lamps require several watts of power, far more than an Arduino. How do you plan to supply that?
That’s a good point. I have never worked with arduino boards so I do not know how they work. Will none be able to power the lighting? We will be using solar panels to power a rechargeable 12 volt battery.
An Arduino cannot power any “lighting.” You can use an Arduino to control the lighting. A simple Google search will shed some light on the subject.
Well obviously… I apologize for the poor choice of words. The original question I was asking is which Arduino board will be able to control the timing for one output while controlling a total of 5 outputs at the cheapest price?
Whatever the cheapest Arduino board that Sparkfun sells. Having to drive only 5 outputs, you have a lot of choices. You could even build your own board with an ATtiny series chip.
From Sparkfun:
[Arduino Pro Mini 328 - 5V/16MHz
with (to program it)
You would also need an USB to Micro-USB cable.
or
And you don’t have to buy anything else as long as you have a USB to Micro-USB cable.
You could go the first route and spend a few dollars extra and have a FTDI breakout to use on other projects…](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12640)](SparkFun FT231X Breakout - BOB-13263 - SparkFun Electronics)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11113)