I have a 3.7V lipo battery driving the Vin of a WS2812B eco LED strip. My esp8266 can signal the LEDs on/off, but even in the off it drains the battery. I'd like to use a have a component (transistor or BJT?) between the battery anode and the anode of the LED strip that is normall open, but can be closed digitally via the ESP8266.
The WS2812B eco works all the way down to 3.0V, but if I put a transistor in there the voltage drop would cause the battery's usable lowest voltage to go from the 3.0 V currently to 3.0 + Vf, so maybe 3.6 V? That's a lot of battery time lost, so I need a component with a very minimal Vf.
The other concern is to minimize power lost while the esp8266 is holding the LED in the on state. Don't some transistors work off of Voltage being present instead of current? Having the voltage style would be the best here because I want to minimize the power lost while keeping the LEDs in the on-state.
What would you do in this situation?
The WS2812B eco works all the way down to 3.0V, but if I put a transistor in there the voltage drop would cause the battery's usable lowest voltage to go from the 3.0 V currently to 3.0 + Vf, so maybe 3.6 V? That's a lot of battery time lost, so I need a component with a very minimal Vf.
The other concern is to minimize power lost while the esp8266 is holding the LED in the on state. Don't some transistors work off of Voltage being present instead of current? Having the voltage style would be the best here because I want to minimize the power lost while keeping the LEDs in the on-state.
What would you do in this situation?