Low power arduino

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I've bought recently a new Arduino Pro Mini. I was mostly interested on what the minimum power consumption might be when powering it at 3.3 volts. The average current was 5 mA with pin 13 led off. But what it is most interesting is that sleep mode current goes down to 400 microamps (and this is still keeping the red led on). As the red led resistor is 10k I guess the sleep current will go to almost nothing once I remove the red led resistor. That is a very interesting value if you're worried about power consumption for sensor network applications. A CR2032 will last for more than 500 hours at 0.4 mA!

Comments

Razvan Dragomirescu said…
Hello Miguel,

Did you manage to try it out without the LED? I'm trying to figure out if the Pro Mini could be used as a low power controller for a battery-powered project I am working on.

Is there a way to contact you by email? I haven't found any contact info on your blog. I am razvan(dot)dragomirescu(at)gmail(dot)com.

Thank you!
Razvan
12:50 am
Anonymous said…
Please post a follow-up on this. We are interested in the lowest possible Arduino power consumption!
7:58 pm
misan said…
More info http://fightpc.blogspot.com/2008/11/some-power-benchmarks.html
1:46 pm
Giancarlo said…
Hola Miguel, excelente, clara y concisa tu explicación. ¿sabes cuanto consume el ADC en modo normal y en modo Reducción de Ruido?
8:34 pm
Giancarlo said…
Otra duda que tengo es cual será la diferencia de consumo entre trabajar a 8MHz y 1MHz. Saludos
8:36 pm
misan said…
Ni idea Giancarlo, imagino que mirando el datasheet del ATMega se puede averiguar.
8:36 pm
Domodis said…
Hola buenos días Miguel,

Veo que eres un gran experto en el modo Sleep con arduino pro mini, te comento:

Estoy utilizando el modo sleep para despues de un determinado proceso dormir el sistema durante horas, no consigo bajar el consumo de 6mah cunado está dormido.

¿Es posible bajar éste consumo?
¿Tienes algún codigo de ejemplo para probarlo y asegurarme de que lo estoy haciendo bien?

Gracias.

Un saludo.
9:06 am
misan said…
El Pro Mini tiene un regulador de tensión serie en la placa. La polarización del mismo posiblemente sea la responsable de ese consumo.

Deberías de alimentarlo a 3.3v de una fuente o batería externa y no utilizar ese chip para reducir el consumo fijo.
11:39 am
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