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I've an Arduino Nano to which a Micro Servo 9g is connected. The Arduino board and consequently the servo are powered by a USB powerbank connected to the board with a USB mini cable.

My question is: Is there a way to insert a power switch so I can turn on/off the board without plug/unplug the USB (that now is the way I use) ? I was thinking to cut the USB cable and work with the positive of it but if someone has an alternative or any tips I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

EDIT: If is needed I could make a wiring diagram.

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up vote 1 down vote accepted

Cutting a usb wire would be the easiest. Otherwise you'd have to cut traces in the pcb and attach wires. Not recommend for beginners. You can actually buy usb cable with a switch.

Another alternative would be to put the microcontroler in sleep mode and have it use very little power.

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Thanks for your reply. If Arduino is in sleep mode does the servo still work? – Luigi Cerone Aug 25 '16 at 18:03
    
I think that if you deattach the servo in software it doesn't use that much power. Otherwise you'd have to connect power to the servo using a transistor, so you can power it down during sleep. – Gerben Aug 25 '16 at 18:16
up vote 0 down vote

As Gerben said, you can buy a cable with a switch built in.

Usb cable with switch

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