The two problems with projects powered by harvested energy, are: 1) running out of juice, and 2) falling into a state of limbo and not (or not consistently) getting out of it again.
Here is an example of both happening – a successful µC startup and then a radio failure:
In the case of the Micro Power Snitch, the energy coming in may vary greatly, since it will be proportional to the current drawn by the appliance being monitored by our MPS.
We’re going to have to tread carefully in this week’s episode:
- Let’s switch to a better MOSFET– Wed
- Anatomy of a power-up– Thu
- Power through I/O pins?– Fri
- Taming the radio startup current– Sat
As usual, each of the above articles will be ready on successive days.
Planned for next week: a few more loose ends, and then my closing notes.
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