Designing a device which collects power periodically

Thread Starter

John29

Joined Oct 13, 2016
18
HI,
How can I make a device where he collects power ( voltage and current) from battery once every 10 min ? Is it possible to use C++ programming for that?
Thank you
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,495
Do you mean you want to measure (as opposed to harvest) the voltage and current periodically?

The programming you can use depends on the hardware you choose. Do you already have something in mind?
 

Thread Starter

John29

Joined Oct 13, 2016
18
Do you mean you want to measure (as opposed to harvest) the voltage and current periodically?

The programming you can use depends on the hardware you choose. Do you already have something in mind?
I mean I want to harvest 9V and 1 A every 10 min. I am thinking maybe with a microcontroller but I am not sure yet if it would work and I am looking for the best and most simple option. Thank you
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,495
I have no idea what you mean. What sort of load do you want to power? Is the idea to challenge or test the battery by placing this load on it periodically?

For how long do you want the power to be on? In other words, what's the duty cycle?

What sort of accuracy to you need? A simple solution would be a 555 timer turning on a constant current load. The timing accuracy wouldn't be great, but maybe close enough.

Will your circuit be powered by the same battery?
 

Thread Starter

John29

Joined Oct 13, 2016
18
I don't need something very accurate but I need Something compact and simple. I want to charge some device(like a ipad which takes 9V@1A) for a period of 1-2 minutes every 10-15 minutes. So, I want to use some battery device which would charge the ipod like that for 12 h. I need some solution for that. Which program should I use and do I need to create some circuit? Thank you
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
What do you expect to gain by charging a phone 1 -2 minutes at a time every 10 - 15 minutes for 12 hours Vs just leaving it to charge normally in a hour like they are deigned to do??
 

Thread Starter

John29

Joined Oct 13, 2016
18
What do you expect to gain by charging a phone 1 -2 minutes at a time every 10 - 15 minutes for 12 hours Vs just leaving it to charge normally in a hour like they are deigned to do??
The purpose is to save energy to support 12 hours ( 9V@1A). If I use it non stop for 12 hours it would be depleted after 2 hours. I want the battery life to last for 12 hours long or more without the need of recharging it. That is why, I need a program to use that battery(for exemple lithium or similar) during 1 minute every 10 minutes. The tasks that I require to do with that tablet also are needed for 1 minute every 10 minutes . Also I don't want to switch battery to have a bigger one in order to support 12 hours non stop. My objective is to have some program idea for saving energy and that's why I need help
 
Last edited:

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
Do your watt hour calculations. You gain nothing from the start stop charging cycles Vs running continuously until it's charged on total energy used or battery energy taken.
 

Thread Starter

John29

Joined Oct 13, 2016
18
Do your watt hour calculations. You gain nothing from the start stop charging cycles Vs running continuously until it's charged on total energy used or battery energy taken.

Sorry for the mistake. I didn't mean to say charge. I actually can't charge my device. For me i was seeing it like this charging=depleting battery=make the tablet function with mode ''on''. Everytime when I said charge in my head it was the same as depleting. Sorry for my bad translation. I can only deplete the battery because it's connected on my tablet device and used by it. So for my objective, I don't want to deplete everything from one shot. I want to deplete it every 10 minutes for 1 minute (little by little) to hold on for a longer period. So that every 10 minutes, the battery is off for 9 minutes. And also the battery's on-off should be made by computer program. I don't want to do it manually. Thanks
 
Last edited:

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,495
So you want the tablet to sleep for 9 minutes, then wake up for one minute and do some tasks, and then go back to sleep? (By sleep I mean a very low power consumption mode.)

This could be done two ways, and both depend on the details of your tablet. The "external" way would be to turn on an external power supply to the tablet. You can likely tell the tablet to stay awake always when on AC power, and to sleep quickly when on battery only. So you would get the effect you want by controlling the AC adapter.

The other way requires an app to control the tablet. The app would have to be able to wake the tablet. I've been doing something like this on an iPhone app and it's not the easiest thing. The language and code you would use depends on your OS.
 

Thread Starter

John29

Joined Oct 13, 2016
18
So you want the tablet to sleep for 9 minutes, then wake up for one minute and do some tasks, and then go back to sleep? (By sleep I mean a very low power consumption mode.)

This could be done two ways, and both depend on the details of your tablet. The "external" way would be to turn on an external power supply to the tablet. You can likely tell the tablet to stay awake always when on AC power, and to sleep quickly when on battery only. So you would get the effect you want by controlling the AC adapter.

The other way requires an app to control the tablet. The app would have to be able to wake the tablet. I've been doing something like this on an iPhone app and it's not the easiest thing. The language and code you would use depends on your OS.
HOw can I connect the app with the tablet's battery to be able to control the battery?
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,495
How would I know? I don't even know what tablet you have, or what capabilities are available to programmers via your operating system.

Why would you want to "control the battery" when you can control the tablet instead? I don't know what that even means to "control" a battery.
 

Bernard

Joined Aug 7, 2008
5,784
To supply power to a load for 1 m. every 10 m. you could use a 555 timer to drive a P ch. FET.
Timing values about 1000 uF, 1 M R & 100 k R. gives 16 m. high, & 1 m. low= FET on.
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
To supply power to a load for 1 m. every 10 m. you could use a 555 timer to drive a P ch. FET.
Timing values about 1000 uF, 1 M R & 100 k R. gives 16 m. high, & 1 m. low= FET on.
That still won't do anything for the internal pad power control that he needs to deal with.
 
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