Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 • Category: Arduino
This example shows how to make use of the Watchdog and Sleep functions provided by the ATMEGA168 chip (decimila). These functions are useful if you want to build low power consuming devices operated by battery or solar power.
The reduced power consumption is achieved by through a intermittent operation of the system .In case of Arduino your main loop will be executed once before the system is put into the sleep mode. After a few seconds t the watchdog wakes the system up and the main loop is executed again. The ratio between main loop execution time and watchdog time determines the amount of power that will be saved.
When we assume that the time to measure a sensor and making some decisions will take 10 millisecond and the watchdog is set to 8 seconds the on/off ratio is 800 which extends the battery live time by this factor.
Build Accurate LC Meter and start making your own coils and inductors. This LC Meter allows to measure incredibly small inductances making it perfect tool for making all types of RF coils. LC Meter can measure inductances starting from 10nH - 1000nH, 1uH - 1000uH, 1mH - 100mH and capacitances from 0.1pF up to 900nF. The circuit includes an auto ranging and reset function to make sure the readings are as accurate as possible ... [more]