Hi, i'm new, in this forum and in arduino world. I haven't got one yet but i'm pretty sure i will.
I'm doing a energy harvesting project using piezoelectric ceramics. The idea is that the piezos provides energy (a few) to a bluetooth dispositive that sends a signal to a pc (a binari signal is enough).
I don't know how to use and install arduino and almost nothing about electronics but if this can work, i will learn quick (i have 3 months to do it).
The question i want you to answer if its u see realizable this project through arduino hardware. How many energy request an arduino and the bluetooth module?
I will apreciate all the points of view
thank you,
If you don't need to report very often you can shut everything down between transmissions. This will have a huge affect on the average power consumed.
There was as good thread about a really low power Arduino version on the old forum but I can't remember much about it. Try searching for "energy harvesting".
Also have a look at jeenodes, IIRC that have a version that runs on about 3 electrons a month (uses RF though, not BT).
There are low power libraries that are good for the arduino that will help you out in this. You would almost certainly need a battery as the piezos are not a constant source of power (on-off-on-off). You do need an atmega 328p for the low power, not all chips work. Also you may be able program with board and then put a bare bones chip onto a board. A barebones chip would save some power, but I don't know if you could get away with the timing on it without using crystals. I don't know how time sensitive the bluetooth is. Without a regulator and other things on the full board you could probably save power.