Making An Ultra Low Power Arduino Pro Mini

This Arduino pro mini uses over 600 times less power than a traditional pro mini, using a couple of simple changes which cost around $2 to make. An original 3.3V Arduino Pro Mini uses around 4500 microamps when running the standard blink sketch. By making the changes in this video, you can get this Arduino down to just 7 microamps, while keeping the same functionality.

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If you've got any ideas for Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or other Electronics projects or tutorials you'd like to see, let me know in the comments section.

[doctorgreatengineer]

this video remind me of one of my projects that I did 2 years ago .I made my own custom arduino nano. then used it as weather station adding the low power sensors. 6000mah battery lasted nearly a year on that device. AVR are really amazing for low power projects. By the way you are doing GREAT man.

[NicksStuff]

I've installed a barebone ATmega 328P in my mailbox with 3 AAA batteries, they're still good after 4 years

[erionmema]

a few months ago I tested that microscope, and booooy the bigger zoom levels were astonishing, the 4-5mm distance from the object was another level.

[mmisiek]

Michael, great video and I saw your post as well. It inspired me to make low power project of remote controlled shades. The receiver still takes few mA but it does in with 10Hz duty cycle which probably averages to 0.1- 02 mA, the Ardurino itself went down to 5 uA. I like your other videos too. Great job !

[michaelradil]

That is a super cool modification. I'm amazed at the efficiency gains. Just removing the led made a huge difference.

[cowboydaniel]

I'll do this for my weather station transmitter! That is super cool! Thank you Michael!

[randmtv]

I would be interested in something like this, but with wifi capabilities so that it connects to home assistant. I guess in that case it would draw way more power. I would just like to be able to deploy some sensors around the house and/or outside without having to route power cables to them. You know having a nice little battery powered package would be great because it would require minimal work to deploy in any location.

[Delali]

This is just great. Nicely done. Now i have an excuse to build a low power long running device.
New video loading.

[Mark-thgn]

Very cool, I am making a custom module using Arduino for in my car listening to a lin bus. It has to be stand by constantly, listening for messages. I will make sure to remove the LED since low power will be a smart choice as it will be doing nothing all the time.

[smartassist]

I am dumb on this. Hope you showed clearly every step.

Just trying to help disabled people. God bless Alton

[rolandberendonck]

Great upload! Michael 💪 I ordered them to power my Lora node which will surely benefit from your advice 😊 Less is more! 😄

[sahanpanditharathne]

this is awesome
im working on a project where i need to make a long lasting sensor node
not sure how i can reduce the power consumption at the rest of the sensors

[bitsurfer]

I would probably use it for a mailbox notification system using SMS. Some people don't have a mailbox close to their house.

[iamfyrus]

I see you only measure the input at Vin + GND. Whats to voltage on Vout (3.3v)? Because I follow your guide and replace the regulator with MCP1700 and there is no output on Vout, it's 0. Pro mini wont turn on.

I end up connecting mcp1700 SMD with wire, its easy to solder because mcp1700 is not too small but the tiny smd leg is easy to broke. It gives 3.3v on Vout and my pro mini is working as it should.

[austinr]

These modifications work and do greatly reduce the power consumption, but be careful. If you accidentally swap ground and power to the MCP for less than a minute like I did, your Arduino will catch fire.

[davidh]

I am trying to build a battery powered receiver/epaper display for my water softener salt level monitor that could be used in a wall mounted case. Basically it shows the salt level in the tank and shows when I need to add salt. I built my current working version a couple of years ago with two nano clones, each with a HC-12 wireless serial port. I use a HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Module Distance Sensor connected to the transmitter in the softener salt tank in the basement, and a 1.3in OLED display on the receiver in the living room. Both units are powered with a usb power cable plugged into a wall socket.

I am thinking the epaper display would only need updated once a day. (The softener doesn't even run every day!) I would only need to run the battery powered receiver until it captured a data transmission (once every 15 min.) and updated the epaper. Also, I would like to put some sort of battery level indication on the display so I would know when to change or charge the battery.

Your video has some interesting possibilities for my project. Thanks.

[GameDevAlceX]

This pretty cool, awesome video! Am a bit of a newbie though so was curious about a couple of things:
1.- What are some examples of applications that would work fine without a voltage regulator?
2.- Any recommended tutorial or documentation I look at to learn how to use the low power library?
Thanks!

[smartassist]

How many switches can it manage? I have moisture sensor turn on and off low power water pump to keep plants watered?

Can you list every item you used?
Also show location for code?.

I am not technical. Making for disabled so they can have garden plants...
Most humble appreciation!

[memoriasIT]

This is cool :)
Subscribed I didn´t know your channel

[rudolfwidmer-schnidrig]

Great Video. You did not say much about the 18650 batteries. I read that some of them come with an "over current protection PCB"
that not only switches off if you draw too much but also too little current. But so far I have been unable to find out where this lower cut-off is.
Can you share any experience in this regards. Would be greatly appreciated. Particularly for these low power projects.