I am working on a project in which I have very little power. Every mA is important.
So I did some measurements checking how much power the ATmega328P Microcontroller needs.
I accomplished this by building it up as standalone microcontroller and measuring a voltage drop at a 1Ohm shunt in the 5V supply line.
The Chip needed 15mA of Current at 5V. This was a normal program, nothing fancy, just switching some outputs, using the three timers. While measuring, no outputs were connected.
Yesterday my voltageregulator broke so the ATmega got 15V supplyvoltage. I dont know for how long, but after I changed the voltageregulator everything was still running as usual, so it doesnt seem its broken.
But after that I checked power consumption again (same configuration as last time )and now the ATmega draws 30mA current.
Is it possibly that the Chip still works as expected but drwas much more current after it was overloaded like I my case?
Looking forward to your replies and many thanks in advance!
-Thomas
..like a water pipe under a street which starts to leak because of too high pressure, where steady drops of water are released in the surrounding soil, carried to the surface by the roots of plants, evaporating into the air through leaves, forming clouds in the sky, raining down over mountains, over hundreds of years seeping through rocks, collected in water reservoirs before they reenter the broken pipe?
edit: Just imagine electrons instead of water and the chip of an arduino uno instead of the world.
..like a volcano with low activity only spitting hot mud and gas here and there, but then one day too many curious tourists enter the bottom of the crater, breaking its sensitive surface which causes it to release double the amount of gas and hot mud?