Continuing with the power budget, How much current does the 18F25k20 draw? The short answer is, it depends.
If MrDEB saves his pennies on a crystal and uses the internal oscillator, table 26-3 from the data sheet says the maximum current draw when operating at 16MHz is 4.4mA. Dropping the clock speed to 1MHz drops the current draw to 0.8mA.
But if he doesn't save his pennies and uses a crystal, those numbers drop to 2mA and 0.4mA according to table 26.4.
It is possible to reduce the microcontroller current draw to micro amps by operating it at 32kHz, but I don't think such heroics are necessary here.
So let's call it 4.4mA for the micro.
Next in the circuit are 5 pullup resistors and the pot for LCD contrast control. Lets say they are 10k each.
V = IR --> I = V/R = 3.3/10k = 0.33mA each or 2mA total pullup resistors.
Next, something we can control - the LED current. Let's say we want them fairly bright so a current of 10mA each and an average of 2 on at a time. That's 20mA total.
Let's see where we're at so far.
- micro: 4,4mA
- pullups: 2mA
- LEDs: 20mA
Total current draw, not considering the LCD: 26.4mA
The batteries provide about 2000mAH of energy, so
2000mAH / 26.4mA = 75 hours of run time. It will actually be a bit longer than this because of the increased cell capacity at a lower current drain. Is that long enough? The LEDs are the most controllable load so balance visibility vs time.
What happens when you add the LCD? Figure it out in the same way.
And by the way, before you say "but I have 3 batteries, so it's 3x longer", no, it's not. The cells are in series. They all experience the same current drain and energy usage.