Ok. Well, seems the one thing I need for my project (the one involving a dog feeder) is some kind of battery pack. Any one have any recommendations? I'll take either 3.3volts (for Teensy) or 5 volts (if I'm better off using another conventional Arduino...most likely the one that starts with U and ends with no). There is no plug, said device is attached above a door or on its frame, also solar panels may not be feasible. So, what would you recommend?
Radioshack is your friend when it comes to this stuff.
There's a list of battery holders and if you go to radioshack you'll be looking for a size "m" dc power connector end if you want to just plug into the input plug on the board instead of the vin pin. I would recommend if you have to use batteries and have the space I would go for the (4) D battery set up as that will last the longest. A (4) C/AA/AAA will also work but won't last as long. Which if you're interested in using rechargeable batteries radioshack also has those available and going with the common D/C/AA/AAA set up it will be easier to find replaceable batteries than getting a special rechargeable battery set up.
ok...so what battery is best for 5 volts, and which for 3.3? Just so I can choose the holder, and then all will be well!
They're all good for multiples of ~1.5v so, 1.5-3.0-4.5-6.0 and so on. So I would recommend :
Which is 8 AA which gets you 12V.
And pick up a 5V regulator:
And you should be all set, no guarantees on how long the batteries will last depending on your draw.
And what would you reccomend for a 3.3volt application? (the Teensy) Or should I just switch to a conventional Arduino? The other Arduino, is no problem, since it will be connected via USB. The outside one won't.
Note, get your thing working first without batteries, before trying to deal with batteries.
I tend to think you don't want to feed 12v to an Arduino, as the Arduino will like just waste the extra power, converting it into heat. The simplest thing is to get 5v battery packs with a USB plug, and use that to power either the Arduino or Teensy as they both run off of USB power. Typically these batteries are meant to recharge cell phones. I bought a 5000maH EZOPower battery that has run the Uno doing blink for about 4 days: http://www.amazon.com/EZOPower-Universal-External-Rechargeable-BlackBerry/dp/B004I0H9OS/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1409979469&sr=1-6&keywords=ezopower+5000maH
Radio Shack sells a bunch of these phone charger batteries: RadioShack.com Official Site - America's Technology Store.
Unfortunately, they stopped selling my favorite enercell battery that had a built-in plug, 2 USB outlets, and a variable power outlet that would allow me to power something with 3, 4.5, 5, 6, 7.5, 9, or 12 volts which was handy when dealing with devices with particular requirements. I picked up two of these when they had them on sale.
I also bought this battery from ebay, which is smaller and has less total power and it only gives 9v/12v. I bought the 18650 batteries separately from a US supplier: http://www.ebay.com/itm/White-5V-9V-12-V-2A-USB-DC-18650-Battery-Mobile-Power-Charger-box-For-Phone-LED-/390906509309?pt=US_Cell_Phone_PDA_Chargers&hash=item5b03d7f7fd
Because this battery takes more 18650 cells, it might provide power for a longer period of time than the above unit: http://www.ebay.com/itm/in5V-out-3-7V-5V-9V-12V-4A-2A-1-5A-1A-Mobile-USB-18650-Battery-Charger-Box-ipad-/161248883701?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item258b2eb3f5
Some of the newer phone charger batteries will turn themselves off if the processor doesn't use enough energy. If you have one of these, you might be able to program the Arduino/Teensy so every so often it uses a burst of energy to keep going. I don't have a battery like this, so I haven't done anything about it so far. In particular, the 9v battery meant for smoke detectors is meant for devices that use very little juice, but need to run for a year or so. If you use them for an Arduino, they will drain fairly quickly.
Now, you didn't mention what kind of power you need for the other parts of your project. If it involves servos, they typically want higher power, and you need to think about powering them.
In general, you want to stay away from non-rechargeable batteries, as the cost will mount up as you use them. Instead, but a decent charger (if it is AA batteries, you want a charger that charges individual cells, and not doing pairs at a time).
Li-on/Li-poly batteries are popular, particularly for 3.3v processors. Adafruit sells various sized li-on batteries and chargers (other places do also, I'm more familiar with Adafruit's products). They also sell a shield that takes a li-on battery and boosts the voltage up to 5v for the Uno. One note, be careful of the wires, as it is easy to pull them out of the battery, and you will need to resolder the wire to the battery: Power, LiIon & LiPoly Products Category on Adafruit Industries
If you are going to be using batteries for a long period of time, you will need to spend some time making the processor as efficient as possible (after you get it working in the first place). Most of my interests are in stuff that is part of costumes, and there I just make sure my batteries can last a day, and then I recharge them at night. Nick Gammon wrote a nice tutorial on running Arduino programs as long as possible on batteries: Gammon Forum : Electronics : Microprocessors : Power saving techniques for microprocessors
Over at the Teensy forums, they talk about low power issues from time to time (also the latest teensydunio has options to run Teensy's at lower clock voltages). You might want to read the various discussions on it: PJRC (Teensy) Forum
@MichaelMeissner
I've used that very battery pack for projects needing 5 volts.
It is a great option for this.
It handles it's own charging so you don't have to deal with it.
@MichaelMeissner: The part that needs the battery uses these parts....Teensy, motion detector, and transmitter. Using a Virtual Wire, it will contact the other unit, which has an Arduino, receiver, and servo, and is connected by USB to a computer. The general way it works, is when the motion detector detects motion, it notifies the "outside" unit (Arduino or Teensy), which in turn notifies the "inside" unit (the Arduino that DOES NOT need a battery), to tell it to turn the servo.
LarryD:
@MichaelMeissner
I've used that very battery pack for projects needing 5 volts.
It is a great option for this.
It handles it's own charging so you don't have to deal with it.
Assuming you meant the battery from ebay with 2 18650 batteries, yeah, it is a nice battery. I need sometime to do a test to see how long it runs driving neopixel rings or some such.
With a motion sensor, it pretty much has to be on all of the time, so the processor can't go into deep sleep mode until an interrupt occurs. However, you don't need to run the processor at full speed, so you can save battery time by running the processor slower than the normal speed. There you might need something more powerful if you need to run for days or weeks between recharging batteries (deep cycle marine batteries for instance).
Adafruit does sell solar chargers that keep lipo batteries topped off, and it might be enough to keep the unit going for a lot longer if there are sunny days.
Good luck.
If your second arduino/teensy is going to be connected via a wire to the first, you might think about powering the sensor microprocessor via that wire, instead of having to deal with a battery solution. The project chaindunio that just ran a successful kickstarter campaign, is one way to do it with rs485 connections and power over a cat6 cable (rs485 is a lot better when communicating over a distance than things like i2c or virtualwire). Now, you likely won't be able to buy a chaindunio until December, but perhaps you can use them for ideas of how to do it: http://chainduino.com/
No, "virtual wire"....it's a protocol. There's no physical connection between the two. In fact my brother (for whom I'm putting this together) insists that the external unit must connect wirelessly to the internal one. As I said, the Teensy unit needs a 3.3 volt power supply. How do I go about that with a battery pack? What kind of battery has that voltage? Or do you need a special adaptor? (except there'd be heat considerations) Ideally, I'd just need a rechargeable battery at that voltage in a battery holder hooked up to the device.
Note, the Teensy can be powered by either applying 3.3v to one of the 3.3v pins (one on the side, one on the back), or by applying 3.7 to 5.5 volts to the VIN pin. By default VIN and VUSB are connected, so you can hook up anything that provides 5 volts of power via a micro-B USB plug. If you want to separate using USB from power control, you can cut the solder jumper on the back of the Teensy, and then you need to feed power to the 3.3v or VIN pins with appropriate voltage.
For the li-po/li-poly batteries that nominally produce 3.7v (4.2v when freshly charged), you can just hook them directly to the VIN and ground pins of the Teensy. You may need to think about low voltage protection, if the battery you are using does not have low power cutoff.
You could use this device to hook a li-po/li-poly to the Teensy: https://www.tindie.com/products/onehorse/lipo-battery-charger-add-on-for-teensy-31/
There are quite a few ways to provide regulated 5v power. Pololu sells several different voltage regulators, depending on whether you are coming from a lower voltage, a higher voltage, or a voltage that ranges from low to high and also how many amps you need to draw from the battery: Pololu - Regulators and Power Supplies
Adafruit also sells its powerboost regulators: https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=powerboost&b=1. It also sells its previous Minty boost: MintyBoost Kit [v3.0] : ID 14 : $19.50 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits
Sounds like a nice add-on, the battery thing. But is soldering required? Also, note that it's a Teensy 3.0 rather than 3.1. I didn't need the extra power, I only chose it because of its size. Is there a version for 3.0?
Raakone:
Sounds like a nice add-on, the battery thing. But is soldering required? Also, note that it's a Teensy 3.0 rather than 3.1. I didn't need the extra power, I only chose it because of its size. Is there a version for 3.0?
The 3.0 and 3.1 Teensy's have the same pinout for the power pins, so you can use either. The reset pin of the Teensy 3.0 (in the back row of pins) became A14/DAC (analog output) in the Teensy 3.1, and a new pad was added for the reset capability underneath the teensy.
I just got mine, but I haven't hooked it up yet (I have several Teensy 3.0's and one 3.1).
You would need basic soldering to at least bring out the pins so you can use it on a breadboard. While it is meant to be soldered underneath the Teensy, you don't have to do that if you would prefer some other setup.
Thank you for the clarification! I might be going with that then.
hello,
Iam here to look out for a help for using a suitable battery for my project; my project uses LoRa/gps shield by Dragino company which is mounted on an arduino UNO board.
LoRa(LoRa bee) module draws a current of 10.3mA
GPS (MT3339) draws a current of approx 45mA
Arduino Uno draws a current of approx 50mA
so which is the best possible portable , rechargeable , light weight , cheap, long life( 8 hrs of battery life for one time recharge ) battery that can be used.
Please help me find a solution for this
sumanaNagaraj1806:
Iam here to look out for a help for using a suitable battery for my project; my project uses LoRa/gps shield by Dragino company which is mounted on an arduino UNO board.
Not a good idea to tag onto the end of a 4+ year old post.
Best to start a new post with a meaningful title, see the guidlines in;
How to use this forum - please read
At the top of the lists of posts.