I'm doing a project with LoRaWAN on the FiPy where I'm going to measure the energy consumption of the device when sending and receiving packets over LoRa (it's for a master thesis I'm writing).

I have the FiPy connected to the PyMakr development board and I'm reading the current consumption of the whole node (FiPy + pymakr) connected through USB to a PAC 1932 board. I started out reading the Idle current consumption of over 300 mA. I realized after a while that some other radios on the device might be on and after turning off WLAN, Bluetooth, LTE and Server (don't know if this has an effect, but it was listed under network, so I gave it a go) the Idle current consumtion dropped to somewhere between 60-70 mA, which is in accordance with the FiPY specifications (https://docs.pycom.io/chapter/datasheets/downloads/fipy-specsheet.pdf)

However to be able to monitor the energy consumtion of the device in a fulfilling manner I need to turn off everything that I don't need (basically everything but LoRa and OneWire since I'm using a DS18X20 thermometer for my application) so that I can get as clear a picture over when there is a rise in the current consumption and what is causing it.

There seems to be something else that's running because at some interval there is a spike or peek in current consumption to about 100-110 mA. This interval doesn't seem to be fixed but it sometimes is 10 seconds or 40-50 seconds between the peeks. This happens when I'm not running anything on the device (see picture for details). 

Does anybody have a suggestion to what the cause of these spikes might be (the LoRa radio trying to signal perhaps?) and is there something else that I could try to turn off to get the Idle consumption even further down?

Any help is highly appreciated!

Additionally my question about if there is more things that could be turned off is still relevant.

Thanks!

If you start a LoRaWAN join it will retransmit until it receives an accept, but the pattern should be quite predictable.

My experiences: When using Firmware 1.17.3.b1, a lte.deinit() often (not always!) result in an OSError exception. And even after looping until it succeeds, it takes a considerable amount of time before the current actually decreases to values comparable to those as mentioned in the datasheets

Question: Which firmware do you use and what code do you use to reliably and quickly switch off LTE? Any code suggestions for me, eg other peripherals I am missing?

My code:

print('Device: ' + uos.uname().machine)
print('Firmware: ' + uos.uname().release)
print('Python: ' + sys.version)
print('MicroPython: ' + str(sys.implementation.version[0]) + '.' + str(sys.implementation.version[1]) + '.' + str(sys.implementation.version[2]))
print('===============================================================================')

print('Switching off Heartbeat')
pycom.heartbeat(False)
pycom.rgbled(0x000022)

print('Switching off WLAN')
wlan = network.WLAN()
wlan.deinit()

print('Switching off Server')
server = network.Server()
server.deinit()

print('Switching off Bluetooth')
bt = Bluetooth()
bt.deinit()

print('Switching off LoRa')
lora = LoRa(mode=LoRa.LORAWAN, region=LoRa.EU868, power_mode=LoRa.SLEEP)

if (uos.uname().sysname == 'FiPy'):

    print('Switching off LTE')
    lte = network.LTE()
    quit = False
    while quit == False:
        try:
            lte.deinit()
        except OSError:
            print('  Exception occured, retrying...')
            pass
        else:
            quit = True

    print('Switching off Sigfox')
    # sigfox = Sigfox(mode=Sigfox.SIGFOX, rcz=Sigfox.RCZ1)

print('Switching off RGB Led')
pycom.rgbled(0x000000)

print('===============================================================================')

print('Now perform measurements ... ')
while True:
    machine.idle()

Console output:

Device: FiPy with ESP32
Firmware: 1.17.3.b1
Python: 3.4.0
MicroPython: 1.8.6
===============================================================================
Switching off Heartbeat
Switching off WLAN
Switching off Server
Switching off Bluetooth
Switching off LoRa
Switching off LTE
  Exception occured, retrying...
  Exception occured, retrying...
Switching off Sigfox
Switching off RGB Led
===============================================================================
Now perform measurements ...

I'm sorry that I can't help you with why this is happening. I am experiencing a lot of strange things when I have had the system up for a long time. An example is that when I measured the idle (no radios) current it was around 60-70 mA. After a while testing with different scripts running lora this suddenly jumped to about 100 mA (nothing else turned on). I rebooted the FiPy but it didn't work. After rebooting the computer I had connected to it as well the current went down to 60-70 mA again...

I have another thread going on the forums on deepsleep current by the way. If you have any experience with deep sleep on the FiPy any help would be highly appreciated. The way it works now is that when running machine.deepsleep() the current rises from 60-70 mA to 160 mA. The same happens if I change the last line of your code above from machine.idle() to machine.deepsleep(). Very strange!

@thomand1000 I have not yet entered the area of deepsleep, because I first wanted to understand the normal power consumption....

Overall it is really strange, it looks the system has more or less every power hungry peripheral on by default and in order to preserve power you have to instantiate and deinit any of these peripherals you do not use manually in your application. Pycom can you explain and comment on this? Maybe provide some code examples how to reach the idle current as mentioned in the spec sheets.

I'm using the FiPy in experiments on my master thesis and really need the deep sleep to be able to monitor the energy consumption on my device in a good way. So it's pretty urgent getting this to work.

Thanks!

• I tried with machine.deepsleep() without switching off anything, without SIM CARD. Sometimes the device would sleep with a 20uA current draw, but it would draw 200mA or 30mA current for 1-30 seconds after the supposed end of program before really sleeping . Sometimes it wouldn't sleep and the current dissipation would be either 30mA or 200mA steady. It was random as far as I could say

• I tried with machine.deepsleep() with switching off with @MartinN 's code and I have same behaviour with him but current doesn't always decrease.

• With SIM card installed and @MartinN 's code machine.deepsleep() works as expected. 20uA current draw always on sleep, LTE offs without delay

Cheers

I am using bits and pieces of the code found in this discussion and I've tried it on different firmware versions as well. Does anyone see anything wrong with this code?

import machine
import network
import os
import time
import pycom
from network import LTE
from network import WLAN
from network import Bluetooth
from network import LoRa

# setup as a station
lte = LTE()
print("Line 15")
lte.send_at_cmd('AT+CFUN=0')
lte.send_at_cmd('AT!="clearscanconfig"')
lte.send_at_cmd('AT!="addscanfreq band=28 dl-earfcn=9410"')
lte.send_at_cmd('AT+CGDCONT=1, "IP", "telstra.internet"')
lte.send_at_cmd('AT+CFUN=1')


while not lte.isattached():
    print("Attaching...")
    time.sleep(0.1)
print("Attached")

lte.connect()

while not lte.isconnected():
    print("Connecting...")
    time.sleep(0.1)
print("Connected!")
time.sleep(2)
quit = False
while quit == False:
    try:
        lte.deinit()
    except OSError:
        print('  Exception occured, retrying...')
        pass
    else:
        quit = True
print("Disconnected")

print('Switching off WLAN')
wlan = network.WLAN()
wlan.deinit()

print('Switching off Heartbeat')
pycom.heartbeat(False)
pycom.rgbled(0x000000)

print('Switching off Server')
server = network.Server()
server.deinit()

print('Switching off Bluetooth')
bt = Bluetooth()
bt.deinit()

print('Switching off LoRa')
lora = LoRa(mode=LoRa.LORAWAN, region=LoRa.AU915, power_mode=LoRa.SLEEP)
print("Going to sleep")
machine.deepsleep(300000)

https://docs.pycom.io/chapter/tutorials/lte/cat_m1.html states the following:

"IMPORTANT: Once the LTE radio is initialized, it must be de-initialized before going to deepsleep in order to ensure minimum power consumption. This is required due to the LTE radio being powered independently and allowing use cases which require the system to be taken out from deepsleep by an event from the LTE network (data or SMS received for instance).+

When using the expansion board and the FiPy together, the RTS/CTS jumpers MUST be removed as those pins are being used by the LTE radio. Keeping those jumpers in place will lead to erratic operation and higher current consumption specially while in deepsleep."

https://docs.pycom.io/chapter/firmwareapi/pycom/network/lte.html states the following

"lte.deinit()

Disables LTE modem completely. This reduces the power consumption to the minimum. Call this before entering deepsleep."

The LTE doco at

https://docs.pycom.io/chapter/tutorials/lte/cat_m1.html states the following:

"IMPORTANT: Once the LTE radio is initialized, it must be de-initialized before going to deepsleep in order to ensure minimum power consumption. This is required due to the LTE radio being powered independently and allowing use cases which require the system to be taken out from deepsleep by an event from the LTE network (data or SMS received for instance).+

When using the expansion board and the FiPy together, the RTS/CTS jumpers MUST be removed as those pins are being used by the LTE radio. Keeping those jumpers in place will lead to erratic operation and higher current consumption specially while in deepsleep."

https://docs.pycom.io/chapter/firmwareapi/pycom/network/lte.html states the following

"lte.deinit()

Disables LTE modem completely. This reduces the power consumption to the minimum. Call this before entering deepsleep."

I am just waiting on our sim pack to arrive from Telstra and the boards.

Have been looking at power consumption and have similar issues to what is reported here have 200mA in main program then 190 to 150 mA for 30 sec before dropping to deep sleep. In first cycle deep sleep current is 200 micro amps. In subsequent cycles the deep sleep current is 30 mA. Have tried turning everything off without change. Have same issue with LTE but don't have a SIM. Agree that things should not be instantiated by default but as required.