Hi, we are working on a feature that will allow for very low power usage. Our stack is a custom shield taking a photo and sending it to an aws server, a process that takes about 10 minutes over cellular.
We want it to come on for 10 minutes per week and are trying to estimate battery life and or looking for charge controller type boards that could help manage beyond Arduino's sleep mode.
Thanks for any insight!
We're using Arduino MRK 1500
http://iotconnection.net/
Sorry I cannot answer the question. The first thing is to determine what the loads are and how much each is on per period. Second what batteries are you using? What power sources are available etc.? Post an annotated schematic as to how this is assembled being sure to show all of your connections.
4G cellular? 10 minutes for 1 photo? Really?
While it may not be best in every case, for something that will turn on briefly only once a week, generally the best battery life will result from completely powering down the circuit, and have it power back up when a previously set alarm date/time occurs on a real time clock.
An RTC like the DS3231 is available on modules complete with a coin cell battery like the CR2032 which will power the RTC for years. The alarm output turns on a P-channel mosfet that controls the battery output, and the circuit powers up. When it's finished with its task, it sets a new alarm date/time, then clears the alarm flag, which turns off the power.
There are other options, but it's hard to draw less power than zero.
Thank you ShermanP and the rest for the input! I will look into that.
Also looking for a consultant to implement and test.
Well I'm not a consultant. But I'd suggest you provide the information requested by gilshultz in post #2.
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