Disable wifi for low power operation



  • Is it possible to disable the wifi radios for lora-only operation?

    I guess I could try to put the Lopy into WLAN.STA mode and not connect to anything:

    wlan = network.WLAN(mode=WLAN.STA)

    but I'm not sure that would be equivalent to disabled hardware.



  • from ESP documentation

    3.3 System Clocks
    3.3.1 CPU Clock
    Upon reset, an external crystal clock source (2 MHz ~ 60 MHz), is selected as the default CPU clock. The external
    crystal clock source also connects to a PLL to generate a high frequency clock (typically 160 MHz).
    
    In addition to this, ESP32 has an internal 8 MHz oscillator, of which the accuracy is guaranteed by design and
    is stable over temperature (within 1% accuracy). Hence, the application can then select from the external crystal
    clock source, the PLL clock or the internal 8 MHz oscillator. The selected clock source drives the CPU clock,
    directly or after division, depending on the application.
    


  • In a typical LoRaWAN scenario there are 'A-Class' devices, sending sensor data in every 10 minutes, hour or less. These are in deep sleep between two measurement/transmission period. This way you can save battery. Just disabling WiFi without going to sleep doesn't help too much. Also reduction of clock can help but as far as I see it is not yet supported and do not know what ESP32 supports itself as a minimum clock frequency.



  • Are there any news about this feature? I'm deploying some LoRa prototypes in a couple of days, and I'd like them to be able to run for a long time out in the wild ;)



  • @tmk854, this option is currently not available, but it will be added in a future firmware release. I invite you to stay tuned to upcoming news.


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