Quite new to the Arduino scene. Any help is greatly appreciated!
I have one motor with a motor controller and a Arduino uno. I'm trying to use a battery pack to maximize the power and length of time for a motor while also powering the Arduino uno and motor control. I want to have the motor off to begin with and the Arduino uno to tell the motor control to turn on at a certain point to start running the motor. I understand the Arduino uno has a small power draw alone and most battery packs wont register that something that small is trying to draw power and won't dissipate any power.
Basically I'm trying to find a good size battery to maximize the length of time the motor will be running, but will also dissipate battery when the motor is off so the arduino can turn on the motor control and motor. I found this battery (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078T7M9HZ/ref=emc_b_5_t), but I'm not sure it'll recognize the power draw from a Arduino uno. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Indeed many battery packs will auto turn off if the current draw is small as they are designed to recharge a phone or laptop with large current draw and stop when the target battery is full and no longer draws much current.
Challenge is that your UNO will draw 50mA if you don’t power anything else - possibly less if you use deep sleep mode.
Finding a battery pack designed for USB device recharge that does not have this behavior is difficult.
Do you really need such a portable battery pack ? What voltage does your motor need ? Would a larger not too smart 12V battery be an option ?
Thanks for the feedback J-M-L! I'm just trying the maximize the watt-hours on my battery so my project will stay alive for longer. That's why I'm trying to use the largest battery I can. I'll be using a 12V motor but it wont be activated until the Arduino receives feedback from a hall effect sensor, hence a small draw at the start and possibly throughout if I need motor to turn off. So I just need the Arduino and sensor to have a large enough current draw. I'm thinking the battery I linked will work cause it has a power switch, I'm thinking it will try and send power no matter what, maybe? Any battery suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!
For useful battery suggestions, as a start you need to provide more information, such as motor supply voltage, average current draw when the motor is running, and desired run time in hours.
A convenient measure is milliAmpere hours (mAh, current draw in mA times the run time in hours h).
Battery capacity is measured in mAh or Ah, Ampere hours, and you will need a battery with higher mAh than required.
that goes against the idea of saving power... you want the arduino and the sensor to have the bare minimum... Also if your motor requires 12V, starting from a ~12V battery could be useful and you could power also your Arduino and sensor from that source (using an efficient buck converter down to 5V) and use a mosfet to drive the power to the motor in due time.