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  3. Newbie PCB and battery on RAW Voltage measurement

Newbie PCB and battery on RAW Voltage measurement

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  • P Offline
    P Offline
    peerv
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    Re: 💬 Easy/Newbie PCB for MySensors
    I am building my first Newbie PCB sensor. I am powering with 9V battery on RAW and let the onboard pro mini regulator supply 5V. I am not using a booster.
    I would like to use the battery measurer voltage divider. I recalculated the resistor values to 5M/680K.
    Looking at the schematic of Newbie PCB I see that when the BAT and REG jumpers are NOT connected and also the REG power input is NOT connected I could use the unused booster pin 1 as input for the Voltage divider.
    I would think when jumpering the RAW pin to the not used pin 1 (Vin) of the booster connection I could measure my RAW battery voltage.
    Just looking for confirmation.
    Thanks

    gohanG sundberg84S 2 Replies Last reply
    0
    • P peerv

      Re: 💬 Easy/Newbie PCB for MySensors
      I am building my first Newbie PCB sensor. I am powering with 9V battery on RAW and let the onboard pro mini regulator supply 5V. I am not using a booster.
      I would like to use the battery measurer voltage divider. I recalculated the resistor values to 5M/680K.
      Looking at the schematic of Newbie PCB I see that when the BAT and REG jumpers are NOT connected and also the REG power input is NOT connected I could use the unused booster pin 1 as input for the Voltage divider.
      I would think when jumpering the RAW pin to the not used pin 1 (Vin) of the booster connection I could measure my RAW battery voltage.
      Just looking for confirmation.
      Thanks

      gohanG Offline
      gohanG Offline
      gohan
      Mod
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      @peerv you can use the booster pin to read the battery voltage or the proto board area. May I ask why are you going to make a battery powered 5v node? That is going to drain battery quite quickly.

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      • P peerv

        Re: 💬 Easy/Newbie PCB for MySensors
        I am building my first Newbie PCB sensor. I am powering with 9V battery on RAW and let the onboard pro mini regulator supply 5V. I am not using a booster.
        I would like to use the battery measurer voltage divider. I recalculated the resistor values to 5M/680K.
        Looking at the schematic of Newbie PCB I see that when the BAT and REG jumpers are NOT connected and also the REG power input is NOT connected I could use the unused booster pin 1 as input for the Voltage divider.
        I would think when jumpering the RAW pin to the not used pin 1 (Vin) of the booster connection I could measure my RAW battery voltage.
        Just looking for confirmation.
        Thanks

        sundberg84S Offline
        sundberg84S Offline
        sundberg84
        Hardware Contributor
        wrote on last edited by sundberg84
        #3

        @peerv

        drain battery quite quickly

        and 9V isnt a very good choice as well.

        the problem is that most Arduino boards use a linear regulator to drop that 9V to 5V. If you are drawing a mere 50mA, 0.2W is being burnt in this linear regulator with 0.25W being used by the Arduno itself. This is very inefficient!

        An alkaline 9V PP3 has a capacity of between 500 and 600mAh. This really isn’t very high – a typical alkaline AA battery will be at least 2000mAh. 6 series AA cells will provide the same voltage, but a capacity at least 4 times the size!

        From: https://cybergibbons.com/uncategorized/arduino-misconceptions-6-a-9v-battery-is-a-good-power-source/

        I have tried it myself - will never do it again. And that was with a 3.3v pro mini.

        BAT and REG jumpers are NOT connected

        These jumpers are made for different applications. Using RAW as source you should not bridge/connect any of these. The current will flow from RAW (in) to arduino RAW where it will be converted to 5v. You then need a second voltage regulator for the radio 3.3v.

        I would think when jumpering the RAW pin to the not used pin 1 (Vin)

        This would add a second application and VCC to your pcb. I would take @gohan advice.

        Controller: Proxmox VM - Home Assistant
        MySensors GW: Arduino Uno - W5100 Ethernet, Gw Shield Nrf24l01+ 2,4Ghz
        MySensors GW: Arduino Uno - Gw Shield RFM69, 433mhz
        RFLink GW - Arduino Mega + RFLink Shield, 433mhz

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        • P Offline
          P Offline
          peerv
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          @gohan I am using the sonar distance sensor to measure water level.
          The measurement is only taking once every minute.
          So the sensor is sleeping most of the time.
          To save power I power the sonar from a digital pin.
          Before going to sleep I switch off the sonar.
          In sleep mode my sensor draws only 200 micro amps!
          Thanks @gohan for the link tip.
          I will see how long the battery last in this application.

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          • gohanG Offline
            gohanG Offline
            gohan
            Mod
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            200 uA is not very low, usually you should aim at 10 or less, so there has to be something that is drawing excessive standby current

            P 1 Reply Last reply
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            • gohanG gohan

              200 uA is not very low, usually you should aim at 10 or less, so there has to be something that is drawing excessive standby current

              P Offline
              P Offline
              peerv
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              @gohan I managed to get it down to 40 microamp in sleep mode now.
              I also read somewhere to set all unused pins to INPUT.
              I am going to try that too.

              sundberg84S 1 Reply Last reply
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              • P peerv

                @gohan I managed to get it down to 40 microamp in sleep mode now.
                I also read somewhere to set all unused pins to INPUT.
                I am going to try that too.

                sundberg84S Offline
                sundberg84S Offline
                sundberg84
                Hardware Contributor
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                @peerv - 40uA is what I aim with a Pro Mini 3.3v, sensor, radio and EasyPCB. Should last you a long time! GOod work.!

                Controller: Proxmox VM - Home Assistant
                MySensors GW: Arduino Uno - W5100 Ethernet, Gw Shield Nrf24l01+ 2,4Ghz
                MySensors GW: Arduino Uno - Gw Shield RFM69, 433mhz
                RFLink GW - Arduino Mega + RFLink Shield, 433mhz

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