New order of LoPy - deep sleep issues?

[jcaron]

Welcome to the twilight zone...

The LoPy4 is not finished yet and we don't have final production hardware. We'll have full power consumption results when it's released.

That'll will happen closer to end of this month.

But then you post on Twitter:

Yay! The NEW LoPy4.0 is shipping :) Come and try out our new #LoRa #Sigfox #WiFi #BLE @ESP32net @LoRaAlliance @sigfox #IoT developer board #GOINVENT

(and I notice the shipment date warning has been removed from the web shop).

Oh, it seems the new cases have been pushed back to... April!

[jmarcelino]

@jcaron

Yes, the LoPy4 hardware has arrived earlier and is actually shipping today (I was surprised myself to learn this).

However the software side is still being worked on so I can't offer power consumption figures yet, they'll definitely be done by end of month but hopefully sooner.

[Robin]

@jmarcelino and @mahe and @livius
I ordered LoPy4's today on the webshop. They were picked up by DHL this afternoon so i should have them next week. Will let you know how i get on with the following:

• Power consumption
• RTC being reset every sleep cycle
• Unpredictable sleep intervals

[bmarkus]

@jmarcelino said in New order of LoPy - deep sleep issues?:

Thanks @danielm

Yes the L01 + baseboard combination will give you very low power deepsleep right now.

Any estimation what very low means?

[Robin]

@mahe
I have a LoPy4 in front of me and am considering how to test power consumption. Previously i had someone who helped with an oscilloscope, but that is a quite impractical for me at the moment. Is there another way to measure low power current drain from the battery? Presumably a multimeter is too imprecise?

[danielm]

I use this tool:
http://www.eevblog.com/product/ucurrentgold/

Unfortunately, it seems to be out of stock.

[jmarcelino]

@robin
I use this tool now, not the cheapest thing but very convenient.
https://www.qoitech.com

[danielm]

@jmarcelino
I was not aware of such device, are you satisfied with it? What are the most notable issues/drawbacks from you experience?
I am considering to buy it.

[bmarkus]

This tool can be also interesting

http://store.digilentinc.com/openscope-mz-open-source-all-in-one-instrumentation/

or a bit more expensive but more complex

http://store.digilentinc.com/analog-discovery-100msps-usb-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer-limited-time/

[ssmith]

@robin I use this device. http://www.cmicrotek.com

You can also use a resistor in series with the 5V input and measure the voltage drop. You just have to size it correctly so you still get enough voltage to run the device. You also have to short it out till the device is asleep.

[dbrgn]

With nothing but the LoPy4 connected to the Otii (at 3.75V with auto range mode) I measure ~32uA in deep sleep.

Is this the best we can expect, or should it go lower?

This is the code (boot.py):

import machine
import pycom
pycom.heartbeat(False)
pycom.wifi_on_boot(False)
machine.deepsleep(15000)

As soon as I connect it to the expansion board (with all jumpers removed, power supply via JST connector) current goes to ~170uA.

[beyonlo]

@dbrgn Don't need to disable the Bluetooth/BLE too, like as you did with WiFi (pycom.wifi_on_boot(False)) ?

[dbrgn]

I think I wouldn't even need to disable wifi on boot, since it should be off in deep sleep anyways.

[beyonlo]

@dbrgn All right, so that's two lines are unnecessary:

pycom.heartbeat(False)
pycom.wifi_on_boot(False)

[Robin]

@beyonlo have you also found that the LED flickers on after resetting from deep sleep?

[beyonlo]

@robin I have not tested that.

[peekay123]

I'll give it a test tonight as well.

[peekay123]

So, with the simple code below, the heartbeat LED pulses very briefly when my LoPy wakes from deep sleep.

[dbrgn]

Since last time I tried the test script again, with the latest firmware (from 3 days ago). Now I get down to 16.5 uA. Not sure if the firmware is related.

Interesting is that when testing the same board on our custom hardware, I can get down to ~13uA. Maybe because some pins aren't floating anymore?

Anyways, it seems to be possible now to get below 20uA in deep sleep.

Edit: And I also sometimes experience the issue that the LED quickly lights up when waking up from sleep or when powering on the device for the first time.

[sioo]

@dbrgn How did you get it down to 16.5uA? I'm currently reading around 30uA in deep sleep.