Favorite Pro Mini for battery applications?

[NeverDie]

Anyone have a favorite pro mini that they prefer for battery applications? Not sure if it matters but I'd like to find one without a voltage regulator on it. A voltage regulator won't be needed and would be just another thing to drain away power (?). It seems that a lot of them have it to convert from RAW down to 3.3v. IMaybe there's no basis for my concern: if I provide power to the Pro Mini on the Vcc line, does the voltage regulator become a NOP and not draw any current at all?

Likewise, having no LED's on the board would be preferable, again to avoid power drain.

Any favorites?

So far, these are the best price that I've found:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pcs-lot-Pro-Mini-328-Mini-3-3V-8M-ATMEGA328-3-3V-8MHz-for-arduino/1967122432.html

[NeverDie]

Bump.

Anybody?

[rvendrame]

Have you checked the sensebender, the oficial board from mySensors?

[NeverDie]

@rvendrame said:

Have you checked the sensebender, the oficial board from mySensors?

By all means, I think all mainstream users should buy the item you linked to. That being said, that item supports NRF24L01+, whereas I find myself edging toward adopting RFM69x instead.

[rvendrame]

Even being the RFM69x demanding for more power? I guess it makes the diference for battery operated nodes.

[NeverDie]

@rvendrame said:

Even being the RFM69x demanding for more power? I guess it makes the diference for battery operated nodes.

It remains to be seen. I haven't yet found a good detailed comparison of their relative merits. RFM69x is more sensitive, so you may not need to crank the transmit power (but good to have it available in case it's needed) to higher current amounts.

[Francois]

@rvendrame have a look at this low power board that is using the rfm69 https://hallard.me/bp-ulpnode/

[NeverDie]

@Francois said:

@rvendrame have a look at this low power board that is using the rfm69 https://hallard.me/bp-ulpnode/

Did he ever finish his ULPnode? He got as far as testing his first prototype, then, as far as I can tell, his blog faded to black. He's been working on it for nearly a year now.

[scalz]

Yes, he has finished it. I talked a little with him. He wanted to finish some work on esp and make some cleanings into his libs before. I know he is on holidays this month. He will certainly release this at the end of the month or during september. In sleep mode, his ulpnode 400-800nA !
He is friendly and I am lucky he doesn't live far from my home. So I hope having time soon to go to visit him and have a drink, talking homeautomation.

[NeverDie]

@rvendrame said:

Even being the RFM69x demanding for more power? I guess it makes the diference for battery operated nodes.

Jeenodes says "The conclusion here is: for these types of uses, with occasional brief wireless sensor data transmissions, the power consumption of the wireless module is not the main issue. It’s far more important to keep the idle (i.e. sleep mode) of the entire circuit under control."
http://jeelabs.org/tag/lowpower/

So, taking that literally, hopefully the RFM69HW high Tx current consumption won't be an issue.