I plan to use a S9V11F3S5 voltage regulator on a portable project to be powered from 2-3 NiMh batteries (2 ideally as I need to keep things as tiny as possible). However, this regulator requires a startup voltage of 3V, so 2 NiMh batteries won’t do the job. I’m wondering if adding an auxiliary CR2032 lithium cell to the system would be enough to start the regulator?
I know there are other voltage regulators like U1V10F3 but I find this one a better choice as it’s very versatile and can offer a higher output current.
We have not tried doing something like that before, but it does sound like it could work. How are you planning on connecting your CR2032 cell to your system?
With a momentary push button to manually provide the 3V at start, just for testing. After releasing the push button, it would disconnect the 3V lithium cell and run exclusively from the 2 NiMh battery pack.
If everything works fine, I’d figure out a more elegant solution. Probably attaching a 555 timer in monostable mode to the 3V battery to automatically switch it off.
That sounds like a good solution, as long as the regulator does not have too high of a load initially (which might prevent it from starting up properly). You should also make sure you are not shorting the lithium cell and the other battery pack together at any point.
