How Long Can An Arduino Run On Batteries? I Tested 6 Of The Most Common Boards

In this video, we're going to be looking at the power consumption of a number of different Arduino boards, with the aim being to try and power them for as long as possible using two 3.7V, 4200mAh, 18650 Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Most Arduino's require a minimum input voltage of around 6V, so we're going to be using two 3.7V batteries in series to power the boards. I've also included a 3.3V Pro Mini, which can be run on a single battery as a comparison test.

We're going to be testing 6 of the most common Arduinos:

Here are links to the batteries and the multimeter used in the video as well:

[lint]

Very valuable data collected and shared. Thanks.

[ATP-Flo]

Awesome video. Exactly what I was looking for!

[JohnClulow]

Very nice experiment! I've been wondering about which boards might be most suitable for 18650 power, and this certainly answers that question. The information you provided regarding sleep mode is also very useful -- I wasn't aware that was available. So thanks very much and I'll look for the follow up video you mentioned to see whether you were able to do even better.

[donepearce]

I think that as a fairer test you should have used the same two batteries in parallel for the 3.3V versions.

Its like testing car Fuel consumption without going anywhere.

[jobbydude]

Very informational! Thank you for sharing this experiment with us :)

[sanjaybatra]

Its giving a nice idea. It would have been great .. if you would have connected few component like LCD and few relays

[watch]

i dont understand your voice(fully) but this video is the most usefull video i have ever seen.

can you speak more understandable ? (english is not my first language)

[the-matrix-has-you]

Battery Time is calculated with the Formula T = (Battery Voltage x Battery Ah) / (MCU Voltage x MCU Current) which will give you the result in Hours. Hours /24 Hours give you the Battery Days without defficiency...

[allenpope]

Does this change substantially by desoldering the on chip LED's?

[PyroRob]

Where can I find those battery holders with the built in chargers? Those would be really useful. No need to remove the battery from the project to charge them.

[HighAspect]

When testing voltage how do you know where to attach to the location on the breadboard ?

[RezaSimRacing]

thank you so much. you helped me a lot

[elektronkim]

The Raspberry Pi Pico can run on 3.7v with a display attached. It's pointless to boost it up unless you need 5.1v somewhere badly.

[sahanpanditharathne]

is there a way to power down more than 8S ?
this seems like a very bad limitation in the LowPower library

[FrancisQuigley]

Excellent video, (are we there yet? 🤣🤣)

[korak]

Where did you get those red PCB battery trays for the 18650s?

[rudiratte]

cool video, and nice projects! Do you know how long those controllers last while in usage? Like with some kind of sensor and transmition (pir/433)

[samadhistate]

Are the batteries you're using protected or unprotected? They seem to be mounted on a module. Does this module protect against over discharge?

[arkern]

I bought these same batteries. Once fully discharged, I charged and found them to be only 1800mAh. I learned the hard way, if you want quality batteries try Panasonic or Samsung instead. You get what you pay for. No such thing as a 4200mAh or 9800mAh 18650 on the market only cheap China knockoffs.