WOW 5 Days...

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sydkahn
 
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WOW 5 Days...

Post by sydkahn »

Not a question but a comment.

I took one of Jimmy Rogers heart kits - and older borduino from Adafruit (with a 168 chip on it) - hooked 3 AA dollar store alkaline batteries to the FTDI cable port 5v and ground connectors - I know it's supposed to be 5v, but three batteries are close enough i guessed - anyway it worked - then I gussied it up with some silk flower petals as a Valentine gift for my honey.

I figured i would get a days run on the batteries, enough for Valentines day. Gave it to her a day early - She lilked it so much it now sits on the mantel hapily blinking away 5 days later. Much to my surprise.

I Don't want to jinx myself so i am not going to measure anything. Just let it run until something doesn't get enough juice and stops.

I didn't realize that an 168 was so low power - i know i am not using the 5v regulator - and the charliplexing only has one led on at a time - but the 16mhz clock must be driving the chip fast and this chip seems to not mind the overclocking.

The engineer in me is flabbergasted...

thefatmoop
 
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Re: WOW 5 Days...

Post by thefatmoop »

pics

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philba
 
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Re: WOW 5 Days...

Post by philba »

Sounds like you have a hit with your honey. My ex would sneer at my projects (which is one reason why she's my ex!).

I think we all take alkaline AAs for granted but they really do have pretty amazing capacity - typically 2200 mAh. 5 days - 120 hrs gives an upper limit on avg current draw of 18 mA. Not surprising. Most of that is the LEDs, though. The Arduinos don't really take much power at all. I bet the voltage is down to about 2.5-3V by now.

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sydkahn
 
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Re: WOW 5 Days...

Post by sydkahn »

Sometimes I never know what she will like - but this was a hit with her...

BTW it's still going...

Image

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sydkahn
 
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Re: WOW 5 Days...

Post by sydkahn »

thefatmoop wrote:pics
well - here is a really, really bad video - but you get the idea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... oY8M-l615Q

EVRE
 
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Re: WOW 5 Days...

Post by EVRE »

Wow!
very cute! My gf would like that too ;)

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