Hi , I built a deer feeder, well it feeds birds and rabbits etc. really anything that likes corn. My problem is the 12v 18 Ah battery and small 2.5 watt solar panel I use does not last more than a few days. The feeder comes on only twice a day for 3 seconds. No writing to sd cards or anything else. The link is on here somewhere with my code. Is there something I can do to make this last longer?
Sorry windows 10 made it hard for me to find my file. If you can tell me anything with this it would be greatly appreciated.
Which Arduino version are you using? You could change to a low power version like the Lilypad running at a low voltage.
Remember a 2.5 W solar panel will only produce that power in bright sunlight (if you're lucky) short overcast winter days reduce the energy you can collect considerably.
Use a multimeter to measure the current being drawn from the battery while the device is idle.
Is it a few milliamps, tens of milliamps, hundreds of milliamps or more than an amp?
The small Solar Panel will be a major issue, at peak sunshine a 2.5w panel will deliver approximately 182ma @13.7VDC (the charge voltage for a Sealed Lead Acid battery), this is probably less than the combined self discharge figures and the total 24 hour standing load +peak load.
Most Arduino boards require hardware modification to make them waste less power to give good battery life. People often prefer a Pro Mini - they're smaller and cheaper, and don't have as much extraneous stuff on the board wasting power - and remove the power LED because that wastes 20mA for nothing.
And yeah, that solar panel itself is probably underpowered. Particularly in winter, when the actual power generated will be a fraction of the rating. Solar panel power generation ratings are always overstated - they're the absolute best possible at high noon on a clear day with the solar panel perfectly oriented, squeaky clean, etc - any real conditions will be worse, often much worse.
I doubt it's 20mA for the power LED as there's a 330 ohm resistor in series with the LED,
so maybe (5V - 2.2V)/330 ohm = 8.5ma.
Remove the LED or the resistor to stop that drain.
Can also power the board with 3.3V or 5V thru the VCC pin and bypass the regulator, vs a higher voltage into the RAW pin.
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