Reducing standby current and battery protection

[smackaay]

I was curious if anyone had a simple to implent method of reducing standby current to a device and to protect a LiPo battery from draining completely. Let me describe the device. The device draws about 350 mA during use but I want to have a soft on-off as well as a timer off so that the device shuts itself off when it's not being used. The device is powered from a 850mah 7.4V battery and it goes to an on-board 5V switching regulator.

Does anyone know of a way to protect the battery from draining below 6v and also allowing a low current (or none) with a soft on-off-sleep? this device is going to be used sporadically so if the battery is dead all the time, that'd suck.

Any help would be appreciated.

[M. András]

set the undervoltage lockout to 6v on the switching regulator? im not sure how much current would it need when in this mode never checked any of them

[Simon]

would a comparator use a small enough current ?, you need some standby current, what is the acceptable limit ?

[nukie]

Seiko makes a lot of lithium protection IC and if they are too expensive, then the Chinese copies works okay too, but they draw too much current sometimes.

[smackaay]

Hmmm, I'm going to see if there's an IC that can do the battery protection. As for the software on-off... hmmm

[AlfBaz]

Are you able to obtain the specs for the battery? Normaly they have built in protection for over-voltage and temperature it may also shut itself down at a certain voltage

[smackaay]

I was just going to use an RC battery. There is no thermistor or voltage protection.