We find under some mild assumptions that the most general potential of 1-dimensional conformal systems with time independent couplings is expressed as V=V0+V1, where V0 is a homogeneous function with respect to a homothetic motion in configuration space and V1 is determined from an equation with source a homothetic potential. Such systems admit at most an $SL(2,\bR)$ conformal symmetry which, depending on the couplings, is embedded in Diff(R)inthreedifferentways.Inonecase,SL(2,\bR)isalsoembeddedinDiff(S1).ExamplesofsuchmodelsincludethosewithpotentialV=αx^2+βx^{-2}forarbitrarycouplingsαandβ,theCalogeromodelswithharmonicoscillatorcouplingsandnon−linearmodelswithsuitablemetricsandpotentials.Inaddition,wegivetheconditionsonthecouplingsforaclassofgaugetheoriestoadmitaSL(2,\bR)conformalsymmetry.WepresentexamplesofsuchsystemswithgeneralgaugegroupsandglobalsymmetriesthatincludetheisometriesofAdS_2 x S^3andAdS_2 x S^3 x S^3whichariseasbackgroundsinAdS_2/CFT_1$.