“Squeezing” every last energy drop of their batteries, our sensors are designed from the ground up with low-power in mind. The original Niphargus uses a dedicated (PIC16LF1825) microcontroller, switching clock speed and peripherals on the fly. It was programmed with the dutch originated “JAL” language. This resulted in a mean sleep power consumption in the order of 5µA, and years of endurance on a single lithium cell.

Creating our own logger circuits allows full control of the monitoring, and the integration of almost any sensor, from ultra-low drift temperature sensors (ADT7420) to last generation CO2 , ultrasound and humidity probes.

Niphargus schematic (v.2015), optimized for low power (DS1337 real time clock, no main voltage regulator, EEPROM and sensor powered by the micro-controller outputs). source : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2014.10.009

During the past years, many open-hardware projects declined the famous “Arduino” platform for ultra low power operation (µA to nA current). This tremendously facilitates development as community-maintained C++ libraries cover almost any use case. Those projects include the excellent LowPowerLab “Motenino’s” (with it’s German clone “Canique”) and the Rocket Scream “Mini Utra’s”. In 2016 Rocket Scream also released a reference library for Arduino compatibles low-power operation.