Mhz Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 I ask this because it appears that it takes more than the average battery supply to power this project.. Is there a way to make it use less power for portability? Thanks In Advance.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MP Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 Which project? The one on our site or another one?The biggest hog for current is always in the display, so if you add a circuit to turn off the display after x amount of seconds, you will save some there.MP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audioguru Posted August 10, 2004 Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 Going another step further, you can also save display current if you add a circuit to flash the display briefly, and keep it blinking for a while. If the "on" time is 20mS, and the "off" time is 480mS, the display will brightly flash twice per second and use an average of only 1/20th of the current. Use a big capacitor across the battery to smooth its voltage.If you want to stay with using an LED display, instead of a low-power LCD one, choose a modern LED display that is ultra-bright and reduce its current. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mhz Posted August 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2004 Thanks for the Replies.. Yeah, I was particularly speaking of the one within this forum. I guess I asked the question because I have a DVM that uses the LCD display and its terrible in low lighting, that is why this project is very interesting to me.. My LCD meter uses 6 AA bateries and it is portable. Therefore, I was trying to see if I could find a way to get by with so many AA, AAA or 9v batteries.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audioguru Posted August 11, 2004 Report Share Posted August 11, 2004 My LCD meter runs for years on a little 9V battery. It even shuts iself off when unattended. Newer ones have a backlighting button that probably also has a timer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mhz Posted August 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2004 Yeah, I bought this thing from Radio Shack some years ago and unfortunately it's without the backlight.. I had a Green LED meter years ago, Loved It, only for my brother to make it dissappear! I just real prefer those LEDs over the LCDs but the ones I see now days tend to be quite expensive for some reason... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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