Bob Blick wrote:
>
> > Being tired of using the wallwarts and a regulator all the time, I was
> > thinking of just getting one of the 4 AA battery packs,
>
> Just for home and experimenting? Use 4 cells and don't worry about it. PICs
> don't really have "problems" until you hit 8 volts. Also, very little of the
> battery's life is spent above 1.375 volts anyway.


I'm not sure that is right. In the TV repair shop we
often saw customers bringing in remotes with blown
IR leds, tested the batteries and found some AA
batteries at 1.8v or over(!), especially some cheap
Asian brands (as customers buy from the supermarket).
These same batteries tend to fail and leak quicker
too.

It's not advisiable to connect 4x AA to a PIC without
some type of voltage dropping. Even the good quality
brand name alkalines I get usually measure 1.65 to
1.60v when first installed.
-Roman

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