Would it be possible to run the MAX4466 with battery?

[benhub]

Hi!

I'd like to build a noise sensor, which senses the noise level (ideally in some comparable unit... decibel?). My idea is to do this using the MAX4466 microphone chip.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/1063

I'm not good at reading & understanding the specification sheets, but I guess I should find this information there:
Would it be possible to run such a node with Arduino Mini Pro on battery power?

Thanks for your help!

[mfalkvidd]

@benhub sleeping the pro mini, waking up every 10 minutest to listen for a second, send the level and go back to sleep would give you a few years battery life on 2xAA.

It might be possible to use a voltage divider to be able to trigger an interrupt if the noise level is above a certain level.

I think it would be pretty hard to convert the noise level to decibel accurately, but a rough estimate should be possible if you have something to use for calibration.

[Nca78]

@benhub if you look at the datasheet of the MX4466 you can see that it's input current is a bit above 24µA which is ok for battery usage.
But you have to include the current consumption of the microphone also, the one used only has a max value of 0.5mA @3V in the datasheet, so you can't make it a battery powered sensor with a very long battery life.