[[basicstamps] power-consumption question/issue]

Archiver

If the 9V is being regulated to 5V with a linear regulator, about half of the
power is being wasted.

"donnmoidaho" <donnmo@l...> wrote:
> I've built a simple circuit on the SuperCarrier board. My power
> source is a 9Volt Alkaline duracell that's attached to the batter-
> receptacle on the board. The circuit is built around the BS2.
>
> The circuit consists of a single ADC0831CCN chip that monitors an
> input device's voltage. When this voltage increases momentarily from
> 1.27V to 1.99V, I begin a brief transmission over the BS2 serial
> port. (A total of 3 send/receives.)
>
> The circuit operates as expected with one exception, the 9V battery
> is drained in a few short hours. (When I check the board after
> running overnight, the green LED on the SuperCarrier board is no
> longer lit. In addition, the battery registers 6.8V on a multimeter.)
>
> I've tried inserting both SLEEP and NAP commands in my code in hopes
> of increasing battery-life; however, these commands appear to be of
> little/no-consequence.
>
> Does anyone have any tips regarding how I should go about
> troubleshooting the circuit to determine why I'm depleting the
> battery so rapidly? (Also, would I prolong battery life if I
> bypassed the LM2940 on the Super Carrier board? (If memory serves,
> there's a voltage regulator on the BS2 as well...))
>
> Thanks,
> --Donn
>
>
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Archiver

1. Yes, you should be able to bypass the regulator.
2. The LED may be pulling anywhere from 6 to 20 mA, all the time.
You should de-solder it if possible (socket it?).
Parallax people-- it's a resistor-LED, what current?
3. Is there any other load?


--- In basicstamps@yahoogroups.com, Fred Kerr (usa.net) <fkerr@u...>
wrote:
> If the 9V is being regulated to 5V with a linear regulator, about
half of the
> power is being wasted.
>
> "donnmoidaho" <donnmo@l...> wrote:
> > I've built a simple circuit on the SuperCarrier board. My power
> > source is a 9Volt Alkaline duracell that's attached to the batter-
> > receptacle on the board. The circuit is built around the BS2.
> >
> > The circuit consists of a single ADC0831CCN chip that monitors an
> > input device's voltage. When this voltage increases momentarily
from
> > 1.27V to 1.99V, I begin a brief transmission over the BS2 serial
> > port. (A total of 3 send/receives.)
> >
> > The circuit operates as expected with one exception, the 9V
battery
> > is drained in a few short hours. (When I check the board after
> > running overnight, the green LED on the SuperCarrier board is no
> > longer lit. In addition, the battery registers 6.8V on a
multimeter.)
> >
> > I've tried inserting both SLEEP and NAP commands in my code in
hopes
> > of increasing battery-life; however, these commands appear to be
of
> > little/no-consequence.
> >
> > Does anyone have any tips regarding how I should go about
> > troubleshooting the circuit to determine why I'm depleting the
> > battery so rapidly? (Also, would I prolong battery life if I
> > bypassed the LM2940 on the Super Carrier board? (If memory
serves,
> > there's a voltage regulator on the BS2 as well...))
> >
> > Thanks,
> > --Donn
> >
> >
> > To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
> > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the
Subject and
> Body of the message will be ignored.
> >
> >
> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >
> >