> Greetings:
>
> I bet this has been covered numerous times before, please excuse the
> repititious question if so:
>
> I have a small project where I'd like to incorporate a 16F84 but I need
> to power it via a 9v battery.  I'd like to keep the project as
> small/light as possible and would like advise on the best way to power
> the PIC.
>
> Can someone recommend a specific V-reg (other than the 7805 I've been
> using) or perhaps something smaller I can accomplish this with?  Could I
> do it with some sort of zener arrangement? Obviously I'm no electroics
> wiz :-( .
>
> The PIC will only be monitoring one High/Low input and will be switching
> one 2N2222 transistor as output. (I know the '84 is overkill, but it's
> what I know how to use).
>
> Thanks in advance for any help.
> Scott
>

>
> |Switching regulator providers are quick to point out that the current
> |drain of a simple linear regulator used to provide 5V from a 9V battery
> |is quite high (compared to typical PIC circuits.)  You can increase your
> |battery life significantly by going to some sort of swicthing regulator
> |design (unfortunately increasing your costs and complexity at the same time.)
> |You can increase it even more by replacing the 9V battery with 2AA cells and
> |converting to a "boost" switcher configuration - apparently 2AA cells has
> |considerably more raw power than a 9V battery.  (also, for small current
> |drain, you can go to a capacitor-only based voltage converter...)
>
> Another advantage of the two AA's driving a switcher is that a
> boost switcher can operate in "pass-through" mode with zero
> quiescent current draw.  If your device only needs the full 5v
> when it's really "operating", being able to throttle down to
> raw battery may help considerably with current consumption.

> Greetings:
>
> I bet this has been covered numerous times before, please excuse the
> repititious question if so:
>
> I have a small project where I'd like to incorporate a 16F84 but I need
> to power it via a 9v battery.  I'd like to keep the project as
> small/light as possible and would like advise on the best way to power
> the PIC.
>
> Can someone recommend a specific V-reg (other than the 7805 I've been
> using) or perhaps something smaller I can accomplish this with?  Could I
> do it with some sort of zener arrangement? Obviously I'm no electroics
> wiz :-( .
>
> The PIC will only be monitoring one High/Low input and will be switching
> one 2N2222 transistor as output. (I know the '84 is overkill, but it's
> what I know how to use).
>
> Thanks in advance for any help.
> Scott

>
> Dear Scott,
> >
> > Marc:
> >
> > I couldnt' find any info on Microchips website about that chip.  Do you know
> > what family it's in?  Do you have a .pdf datasheet you could send?  I didn't
> > see it in Digikey's latest catalog, either.
>
> I just saw a note on an info sheet of Metronik (a German distributor)
> about the PIC16HV540.
>
> Here some more details:
> - Software- & pinkompatible to PIC16C54, but 4 stack-levels
> - EPROM 512*12Bit, RAM 25 Bytes
> - 8 High Voltage IO Pins on Port B, 4 Low Voltage Pins
> - includes a voltage regulator (should work from 3.5V ... 15V)
> - Wake-up from Sleep through Sleep-Timer or Change on Pin
>
> Maybe anybody else knows more about it ...
>

>
> Dear Scott,
> >
> > Marc:
> >
> > I couldnt' find any info on Microchips website about that chip.  Do you know
> > what family it's in?  Do you have a .pdf datasheet you could send?  I didn't
> > see it in Digikey's latest catalog, either.
>
> I just saw a note on an info sheet of Metronik (a German distributor)
> about the PIC16HV540.
>
> Here some more details:
> - Software- & pinkompatible to PIC16C54, but 4 stack-levels
> - EPROM 512*12Bit, RAM 25 Bytes
> - 8 High Voltage IO Pins on Port B, 4 Low Voltage Pins
> - includes a voltage regulator (should work from 3.5V ... 15V)
> - Wake-up from Sleep through Sleep-Timer or Change on Pin
>
> Maybe anybody else knows more about it ...
>