DIY Geiger Counter with low power consumption

Posted by LowPowerConsumption on Wed 03 Dec 2014 12:06 PM — 4 posts, 18,661 views.

#0
(I registered on forum.arduino.cc but didn't get activation email, so I ask here)

I've read gammon.com.au/forum/?id=11497 and got my ATmega 328P-PU down to 6mA consumption (on breadboard, no external crystal, down to 1MHz, turned off various chip functions), but without sleep mode. The reason why this is without sleep mode is that my first try didn't work and now I'm not sure if sleep in my case does make sense at all: I'm using a Geiger counter to receive and count INT impulses and display the number on a Nokia 5110 LCD. If I would sleep, even the time gets turned off and I don't know how many impulses I receive in a minute (Counts Per Minute, CPM). The number of CPM can be from 20 to a few 100000 (1000s impulses per second) and so I'm not sure if sleep is an option at all to lower power consumption.

Since I'm using a relatively simple setup, maybe there's an alternative chip with similar commands (so I can simply connect and reuse the LCD and Counter for INT impulses) but consumes less power?
#1
Nevermind, I'll to try this with a much better low power design chip series: MSP430 (I'll use MSP430G2553 or MSP430G2452).
Australia Forum Administrator #2
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Australia Forum Administrator #3
Quote:

(I registered on forum.arduino.cc but didn't get activation email, so I ask here)


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