PIC can draw how much power in repetitive counting?

[boonthiam89]

Hi guys, I am currently doing a solar panel tracking system. I am using PIC18F452 and don't know how to program sleep mode into PIC which is then waked up by certain value of input voltage. So I make my system flowing as below:
1. When evening comes, my system to return to initial position and stay into position as long as no intense sunlight appears.
2. To check when morning time comes ( intense sunlight comes out), my system will check for input voltage value every 1 minute or longer to determine when only to move the system towards to intense sunlight.
The question now is:
without using sleep mode, this 2 steps (repetitive delay and checking for input voltage ) for about more than 12 hours will draw a lot of power from battery or not? Or anyone can recommend me an easier sleep mode programming code.
Thanks a lot^^

[ABSF]

How do you power your mcu circuit? Are there any motors or LCD backlites that consume most of the current?

If you can switch off the motors and LCD back lights when evening falls, the PIC mcu need not go to sleep because it consumes very little current (<50mA I guess at 20MHz). But if that it still too much, then going to sleep may get the current consumption down to uA. I have never tried sleep mode on pic before, but I think it shouldnt be to hard if you read the datasheets carefully.

Allen

[Idris]

The question now is:
without using sleep mode, this 2 steps (repetitive delay and checking for input voltage ) for about more than 12 hours will draw a lot of power from battery or not? Or anyone can recommend me an easier sleep mode programming code.

I have done program the sleep function on my PIC24 using MPLAB and MPLAB Compiler for PIC24. Very easy just write sleep(); and the MCU will go to sleep. To wake up the MCU you need a interrupt function. Are you using servo motor?