A common challenge that developers and engineers face is how to get the most out of the battery life for the device they’re developing. One important design considerations is how the device and battery are connected. There are, in principle, three options to choose from:

1. Direct connection

2. Connection through a linear regulator

3. Connection through a DC/DC converter

Which option gives the best voltage regulation – and is that what’s needed to get the most out of your battery?

In this two part video, we’ll go through the input voltages to characterize the current consumption for the three different options, looking for the best performance, giving the longest battery life. It is dependent on the set-up, and in ours we use an Arduino Pro Mini powered by three AAA Alkaline cells.

Spoiler: the DC/DC converter is the clear winner for this specific set-up! Despite the internal losses in the DC/DC converter, this approach more than compensates by being able to extract the maximum energy from the batteries.

Watch the videos, follow the same steps, and you can decide which solution is the best for your battery and load!