How to run my atmega 328 chip from 4 AAA batteries?

Hello,

Im currently working on my first real noobish project, its a temp/moisture sensor for my brother for his organic garden,

i have all my leds and 330 resitors soldered on, but i need to know waht componets i need to take 4 AAA batteries and power my chip without the Arduino,

everything can fit into the container i want it in (an altoid can) but i need to know what resistors/capactors or regukaters i need ino order to safely run my hardware.

also what ways can i use my multimeter so i can measure the volts and amps, so i can calculate how long the batteries would power the device.

I hear alot of great things about the element 14 community and i cant wait to hear what you guys have to say

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0 e14 Contributor over 12 years ago

so how would i hook this up, with my switch and what atmega pins to connect the regulater to? im still very noobish, so i dont need an external 16 mhz crystal, itll run at 8 mhz without it? dont want to sound to stupid but can someone give me a simplified tut/explanation of this
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0 mcb1 over 12 years ago in reply to e14 Contributor

Jack

A piece of plastic is the best idea to insulate the board from shorting.

There are quite a few "bare bones Arduino' articles on the internet, with plenty of circuits etc.
The input of the regulator connects to the battery, and the output goes to the +5v pin, the regulator ground connects to the Arduino ground.
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0 mcb1 over 12 years ago in reply to e14 Contributor

Jack

A piece of plastic is the best idea to insulate the board from shorting.

There are quite a few "bare bones Arduino' articles on the internet, with plenty of circuits etc.
The input of the regulator connects to the battery, and the output goes to the +5v pin, the regulator ground connects to the Arduino ground.
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0 e14 Contributor over 12 years ago in reply to mcb1

so i dont need any capacitors, external crystals or resisters? just the regulator connected to my switch then to my chip? if that then thats pretty easy, and someone said id be fine with just 3 AAA, not 4.
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0 Robert Peter Oakes over 12 years ago in reply to e14 Contributor

3 would mean you dont need a regulator but you should operate the cpu at 8Mhz to improve the battery range you will have
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0 Robert Peter Oakes over 12 years ago in reply to e14 Contributor

even in the diagram above there is a 16Mhz resonator, this is the same as a 16Mhz crystal as far as your concerned

Peter
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0 e14 Contributor over 12 years ago in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

so with 3 AAA batteries i can connect it straight up to my chip (just wanting to make sure to not ruin my chip ) and that will work just fine?
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0 mcb1 over 12 years ago in reply to e14 Contributor

It was stated earlier that the addition of 0.1uF capacitors will help stop the noise on the supply line.

You don't need the resonator, but I'm sure your search of circuits already discovered that.

mark
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