John,
Glad you managed to figure your problem out. The problem comes from using a 12V in to the arduino. The higher the voltage in, the less current the arduino's onboard regulator can provide before it shuts down from over heating. At 12v it can only provide about 200mA. The arduino it's self uses something like 120mA so that only leaves 80mA for anything connected to it. With the relay boards we are using, each relay draws about 70mA when it is first activated, and about half that to remain on. If you try to power more than 1 or 2 relays at a time it will overload the on bard voltage regulator.
If you power the arduino from USB if can source about 500mA, and with 7 volts on the barrel jack you can get close to 700mA.
Pretty much it is recommended to use the 5 volt in and power other devices separately when possible unless it's just a couple LEDs or sensors that won't draw much current. How you have things set up now is the recommended way to do it.
JGL
P.S. all looks good in your pics!
