# Voltage Help!

**URL:** <https://community.sparkfun.com/t/voltage-help/26972>\
**Category:** Arduino\
**Created:** [June 21, 2013, 2:26am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/voltage-help/26972 "2013-06-21T02:26:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mizuel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@Mizuel](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/Mizuel)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 2:26am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/voltage-help/26972/1 "2013-06-21T02:26:33Z")

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I’m building a Rc car and I have the arduino Uno. I had quetion if I could power the dc motor up to 15V (connected adfruit Motor shield), what dose it mean that the Arduino can only operate with 5v?

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**Author:** ![Ross\_Robotics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ross\_Robotics](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/Ross_Robotics)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2013, 3:48am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/voltage-help/26972/2 "2013-06-21T03:48:14Z")

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The Arduino’s chip can only handle up to 5.5V. You can put more voltage into the DC barrel jack on the board. I believe the highest voltage input would be 12V before you would need to put a heatsink on the voltage regulator.

So if you want to put the 15V into the Arduino, you can, but you will need a heatsink. Or you could search ebay for a “buck converter.” You could put one of those before the Arduino to regulate the voltage down below 12V. I would advise somewhere in the range of ~9V to keep things safe.