Hi,
I am working on a project that requires the Arduino to send texts at regular intervals (i.e. 30 mins) and it must operate for a long period of time (3 - 6 months) without need for the 20000mAh battery I have running out while powering it. If I leave the whole thing on all the time it drains the battery very quick (within a few days) therefore I am looking for a solution that allows the power supply to be turned on for approximately 30s - 60s every half an hour to allow it to send the text before being turned off again.
I am hoping to use a digital clock to turn on and off a transistor or a number of transistors to act as a switch to switch the power on and off to the Arduino.
Is this likely to be possible/easy or am I going about this the wrong way. I dont want to use the sleep functions as they still use power. I am thinking of using the digital clock as the trigger as it will last years on a few AA batteries.
If anyone has done anything like this before or has a better suggestion it would be much appreciated and if they can provide a drawing of how to set this up and what components I would need I would be so gratefull.