4mA system, is it possible? - mifare, wifi, printer

[Triple_X]

hi all,
is this complete system possible to be built around 4mA of current? I contacted one of the solar panel supplier, and he claimed that the overall system can be implemented with a very low power. interface as below:

i have never seen any system in the market uses only 4mA for the whole operation. should any one of u knows, please let me know. URL would be great. thanks!

 

[FvM]

You may want to mention also the solar panel voltage. There are several components, that can be expected to thwart the design, e. g. thermal printer, LED backlight, possibly WIFI. At least an additional energy storage as a supercap would be needed to collect energy, allowing only a small active operation duty cycle.

 

[Triple_X]

hi,
i have already completed a mainboard - 80C52 mcu, 4 x smartcard interface, mifare interface, serial interface. the board is powered by 7V-20V, as it has a DC-DC regulator on board (both for 5V & 3V3 - peripherals & MCU).

Using adjustable power supply to feed the board, it shows a constant current used by the board, around 260mA (7V-12V) - so I believe it wont be possible to reduce to 4mA - unless I turn OFF all peripherals & put everything into SLEEP mode - but have not try it yet..

btw, let say thermal printer will be using around 1.5A during printing & cutting, which supercap would be sufficient to support its operation?

thanks for any help.

 

[FvM]

Apart from the general doubt regarding minimal power requirements of some components, I don't expect that an existing design would be suitable for extreme low power operation. The system rather has to be redesigned from the scratch.

I don't talk of small memory backup supercaps but real energy storage devices. Because of better availability, you may want to consider a usual NiMH accu as a first approach.

 

[kspalla]

I think its possible.
You need to know average power required by the Wifi.
Have the power budget and booster if any with high storage cell.