nRF54L15 Zigbee - High current consumption

RE: nRF54L15 Zigbee - High current consumption

Amanda Hsieh — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:41:15 GMT

Thanks for the nice share. 🙂

RE: nRF54L15 Zigbee - High current consumption

Kampino — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 15:15:04 GMT

Hi,

sure. The complete source code (incl. the Zigbee implementation) can be found in the repository

github.com/.../BeeLight

RE: nRF54L15 Zigbee - High current consumption

Amanda Hsieh — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:55:54 GMT

Good to hear that. Would you like to share your solution to benefit more users?

RE: nRF54L15 Zigbee - High current consumption

Kampino — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 19:43:50 GMT

I think I´ve fixed the issues. The latest measurements show a current consumption of ~40 uA

RE: nRF54L15 Zigbee - High current consumption

Kampino — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 07:30:51 GMT

Hi Amanda,

Thanks for the tips. I´ve optimized the firmware and I was able to reduce the power consumption significantly. The device consumes around 70 uA when Zigbee is disabled in KConfig and ~220 uA with Zigbee after the pairing.

I´ve also added the code from the light switch example but I can´t see any difference.

int main(void)
{
    dk_leds_init();
    dk_buttons_init(on_button_changed);

    //register_factory_reset_button(FACTORY_RESET_BUTTON);

    zb_set_ed_timeout(ED_AGING_TIMEOUT_64MIN);
    zb_set_keepalive_timeout(ZB_MILLISECONDS_TO_BEACON_INTERVAL(60000));

    zigbee_configure_sleepy_behavior(true);

    /* Power off unused sections of RAM to lower device power consumption. */
    if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_RAM_POWER_DOWN_LIBRARY)) {
        power_down_unused_ram();
    }

#ifdef CONFIG_ZIGBEE_FOTA
    #error "Not supported yet!
    /* Initialize Zigbee FOTA download service. */
    zigbee_fota_init(ota_evt_handler);

    /* Mark the current firmware as valid. */
    confirm_image();

    /* Register callback for handling ZCL commands. */
    ZB_ZCL_REGISTER_DEVICE_CB(zcl_device_cb);
#endif

    /* Register device context (endpoints). */
    ZB_AF_REGISTER_DEVICE_CTX(&env_sensor_ctx);
 
    app_clusters_attr_init();

    /* Register handler to identify notifications. */
    ZB_AF_SET_IDENTIFY_NOTIFICATION_HANDLER(SENSOR_ENDPOINT, identify_cb);

    /* Start Zigbee default thread. */
    zigbee_enable();

    zbus_chan_add_obs(&battery_data_chan, &battery_data_lis, K_MSEC(100));
    zbus_chan_add_obs(&light_data_chan, &light_data_lis, K_MSEC(100));
    zbus_chan_add_obs(&env_data_chan, &env_data_lis, K_MSEC(100));

    LOG_INF("BeeLight application started");

    while (1) {
        k_sleep(K_FOREVER);
    }

    return 0;
}

IMO 220 uA is high for a battery-based Zigbee device. Is there a solution to optimize the current consumption any further? I´m also wondering where this 3 s peak comes from

It´s not from the sensor reading events (I guess) because these events were triggered all 5 min, 30 min and 24 h

Thanks!

RE: nRF54L15 Zigbee - High current consumption

Amanda Hsieh — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 17:11:56 GMT

Hi,

System OFF is not supported with Zigbee. If you want to reduce current consumption, you should instead use the Sleepy End Device. The light switch sample supports the Sleepy End Device behavior that enables the sleepy behavior for the end device.

[quote user="Kampino"]yes I´m using this addon.[/quote]

Which version of the Zigbee R23 add-on are you using? The latest v0.4.0 would only support NCS v2.9.0. If you set up correctly, the log would show like this:

-Amanda H.

RE: nRF54L15 Zigbee - High current consumption

Kampino — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 14:39:19 GMT

Hi,
yes I´m using this addon.

RE: nRF54L15 Zigbee - High current consumption

Amanda Hsieh — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 13:12:32 GMT

Hi,

Are you using the Zigbee R23 add-on solution for Zigbee developments on nRF54L15DK? If not, please use the samples from that to start.

Regards,
Amanda H.

RE: nRF54L15 Zigbee - High current consumption

Kampino — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 11:34:46 GMT

I did some more testing to see if my hardware is working properly.

I removed the sensors and the LED and tried the system_off sample from Zephyr (compiled for nRF54L15DK) and system_off in my firmware. I also replaced the system_off call in the Zephyr sample with k_sleep and use k_sleep instead of system_off in my firmware.

With this, I get the following results:

Current on my board with system_off sample from Zephyr: avg. 1.6 uA
Current on my board with system_off sample from Zephyr and system_off replaced with k_sleep(K_FOREVER): avg. 4 uA
Current on my board with system_off in my firmware: avg. 0.61 uA
Current on my board with k_sleep in my firmware: avg. 150 uA

So my board consumes less power with system_off than the Zephyr sample. I guess it comes from the pin conflict between the two boards. But it doesn´t care because the result is really good. But I´m wondering why k_sleep on my hardware is consuming that much current. There is something enabled that shouldn´t be enabled.

Zigbee isn´t tested any further.

Edit: Maybe someone can answer one question to me:
Is it possible to use system_off with Zigbee and BSEC2 from Nordic? If I see it correctly, BSEC2 is using a thread with a sleep to run the periodic update of the state machine inside of the library. Is it possible to leave the system_off state by this thread? I don´t think it´s possible but maybe I´m wrong 🙂