Low Power Arduino! Lower the Voltage and Frequency

In this video we take a look and see what effects on power consumption the Voltage and Frequency have.
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[@Elixz89]

Hey Kevin, you should try to run it at its default 1 MHz RC oscillator at around 1.8 volt. This is what is listed in the datasheet as ultra low power

[@Burkhardj]

Hey Would be nice if you measure both states 5V / 3V with the internal oscillator too. But very interesting.

[@PilotPlater]

Finally, something in the datasheet I've actually used before! haha Pretty familiar with the speed grades chart because it's important if you want to do battery operated devices. I made a music box for someone about 5 years ago using an arduino and three AA batteries with wires soldered directly on and wrapped up with tape. Put it all in a tin box with a switch to activate when you open the lid and that's the whole thing. I don't know what voltage the batteries are at, but I hear the box still works! Not that that's a measurement of anything since it has a power switch to completely isolate the batteries from the arduino.

[@chriscollins4375]

awesome overview. nice to see your covering an area that is "a path less traveled". Not many people do this type of experiment. Thanks Kevin

[@parkerjohn2459]

I really like this series.

[@joydivisione1420]

These videos have sooo many useful info in it. You're the best! Thank you!!!

[@marhar2]

This is really useful stuff... loving this series!

[@garthhowe297]

Just another great video Kevin, thanks very much

[@emcgon]

Interesting video series - thanks for making them. One thing that strikes me is that when you halved the clock frequency, the current consumption reduced - as you would expect - but not by half. So the power consumed by the microcontroller to execute a particular sequence of instructions will be more at 8MHz than at 16MHz.

[@Kevindarrah]

+emcgon yea, that's what I was trying to convey towards the end there, but if say you needed to do something else that was out of your control or that was independent of your own speed, then running at 8MHz makes total sense.

[@Ed19601]

Very interesting. In your frequency voltage tests the differences in running value at different voltages ofcourse is not really a surprise. I think it would be safe to say that in running condition, the surplus of the current is determined by the LED switching on. As you seem to have a an orange LED, I presume it has a 2 Volt FW voltage. So the series resistor has 3 Volt to dissipate. ergo it must be a 260ish Ohm resistor Switching to 3Volt, that resistor only has 1 Volt to dissipate so the current comes to 1000/260= 3.8. ofcourse that is not directly 5.6mA but it is in the ballparc.

[@Fleurlean4]

Thank you for your hard work. These are very helpful.

[@AdiosBK]

Thanks Kevin, please continue this series ) Also I would be happy to hear about Low Power ESP8266 with Arduino bootloader. Since it is not based on Atmel chip, what advises are still valid for ESP8266 ? I known that ESP8266 can wakeup with wifi disabled, and it has different sleep modes. So it would be nice to known what else could be used to minimize power consumption.

[@Kevindarrah]

+Иван Романенко yea, that is on my list of projects. I haven't loaded the arduino stuff directly onto the ESP yet

[@TheSageDad]

+Kevin Darrah I would love this. I just started getting into ESP's after finding your channel, now I have plans to put these things all over the house! It would be kind of simple to put together an excel sheet that listed the MHz options, sleep options, and a place to put your desired "wake up intervals" to check sensor readings or something... so it could model power consumption and tell you how long it will run on different battery cell options. Or, "i'm sure there's an app for that, right?"

[@combomatrix]

Great stuff! Thanks Kevin.. Keep up the good stuffs :)

[@Johncoffee2002]

Great as well ! Thanks a lot Kevin!

[@Mr.Nobody244]

Good analysis...great work ..

[@exosdel]

Great video!

[@Brainstorm4300]

Dude my ATmega328p draws more than 180mA (nothing connected to the pins), the standalone arduino circuit is okay because I tested it with another 328p & it draws about 15-20mA. So I assumed the chip that draws too much current is a dud but it does perform codes without a hitch. Whats your opinion on the matter?

[@slap_my_hand]

What about the internal clock of the MCU?

[@mitkovich]

What if you use the internal clock? Do you think you can save even more?

[@102diy]

Hi! Great comparison! But have you some tests with the internal 8 mhz oscillator?

[@richardlighthouse5328]

I prefer to run ATMega328P at 8 MHz internal RC oscillator.

[@CiroPeixoto]

Very good! It is very necessary for IOT!!

[@Kevindarrah]

+Ciro Peixoto oh yea! I think you know where I'm heading with this :)

[@CiroPeixoto]

Kevin Darrah of course!!! all of us !!! Congratulations your articles are very good !!

[@DuongTrongHue]

Thanks Kevin Darrah. Can you instruct how to upload a booatloader for these chips. I followed some articles but always failed.

[@Kevindarrah]

+Saytinh funny you should ask :) That was the next video I was planning to make. Maybe next week sometime

[@DuongTrongHue]

Great! waiting you.

[@nrdesign1991]

I tried that with a clone Arduino which most like does NOT have a genuine CPU on board. The lowest I could get it by removing the regulator, and power LED, and without changing the fuses was 95µA. A clock project running on a DS3231 and a Nokia 5110 display (both most likely not genuine too) consumes around 0.29- 0.47 mA for most of each second.

[@rj44319]

woot!

[@imjeff88]

dud was the voltage changing going to the led and the crystal it self might be using more power did you change the cap size as well

[@zevik84]

Hi, can you please write which electronic components you used (beside the ATMEGA) for the setup? Thanks

[@SPJS01Pro]

Great Video? What about the internal crystal?

[@MikeMcRoberts]

What is the unit being used to measure the current please?

[@andymouse]

Quick question, I have an ATMEGA328p-AU with the bare minimum set as yours but it wont operate at less than 3.6V any thoughts ?

[@alphahr]

Looks like 3.3VDC should be a good option then

[@4a4ik]

Great video, but why you specialize in Arduino? As i heard Arduino libraries don't work properly if you mess with the voltage and crystal frequency.

[@Kevindarrah]

+4a4ik I'm using the native boot loaders within the Arduino IDE, so none of the libraries that rely on the timing will get messed up. What you see in the video are technically two Arduinos - Arduino Mini 16MHz and Arduino Pro 8MHz - I've got a video coming up that will explain how to load the right bootloaders

[@debashisdas7557]

I have a question if input voltage of an arduino changes dose that effect the adc valu...if adc is enabled......can anyone answer this....pls

[@javierpallalorden]

Hi Kevin, I wonder how much current it would draw using the internal 8 MHz RC-oscillator ?

[@Kevindarrah]

+Javier Palla Lorden Yea, I wonder? I should try that out. My approach to this series is to not modify things too greatly from the default Arduino setup, but I think we can start digging into those kinds of things now

[@STRATOS13PAO]

+Kevin Darrah that will be interesting, i hope you try it out in one of your videos :-D

[@MrPmjg]

One question, when you are measuring the current in "running mode" it is with the LED turn on or in the delay?