Using GPIO in LOW POWER MODE consuming less than 30uA.

RE: Using GPIO in LOW POWER MODE consuming less than 30uA.

keith v — Thu, 26 May 2016 13:25:28 GMT

Your images are broken. I don't believe your 60ua during blink number. Thats not enough to light up the LED. you're measureing something wrong IMHO

RE: Using GPIO in LOW POWER MODE consuming less than 30uA.

Susheel Nuguru — Thu, 26 May 2016 11:18:20 GMT

use the app_button library. The default behavior is that it uses port event because it switches off hi_accuracy mode using

nrf_drv_gpiote_in_config_t config = GPIOTE_CONFIG_IN_SENSE_TOGGLE(false);

inside app_button_init.

So app_button library by default uses port events in GPIOTE that consumes less current. Most of the examples in SDK use app_button library which is easy to use.

RE: Using GPIO in LOW POWER MODE consuming less than 30uA.

Harsha — Thu, 26 May 2016 10:19:02 GMT

Aryan, can you give me a working example for button input using GPIOTE port?.

RE: Using GPIO in LOW POWER MODE consuming less than 30uA.

Susheel Nuguru — Thu, 26 May 2016 08:08:37 GMT

use GPIOTE PORT event instead of IN events. PORT events does not consume more power.

RE: Using GPIO in LOW POWER MODE consuming less than 30uA.

Harsha — Thu, 26 May 2016 08:02:14 GMT

Dear Aryan, That was right. GPIOTE was the one which is consuming more power. I am using GPIOTE for reading keypress. Suggest me a way to get the Keypress with less power consumption.

RE: Using GPIO in LOW POWER MODE consuming less than 30uA.

Susheel Nuguru — Thu, 26 May 2016 07:21:51 GMT

Can you check if using app_timer without softdevice consumes less power? we can exclude softdevice if app_timer and your RTC code behaves same in terms of current consumption. If current consumption is still high after disabling softdevice and using app_timer, then you have something else in the code (probably enabling some hardware maybe GPIOTE?)

RE: Using GPIO in LOW POWER MODE consuming less than 30uA.

Harsha — Wed, 25 May 2016 16:37:29 GMT

Timer Create.PNG Timer Start.PNG

Aryan. Find the attached code. This is actually using App timer with S130 enabled. Consumption is 1.2mA. In the timer_a_handler i am blinking a LED.

Whereas Here RTCInit.PNG

I blink the LED using RTC interrupt without softdevice the consumption is 60uA during blink and 16uA during idle time.

Let me know what you feel.

RE: Using GPIO in LOW POWER MODE consuming less than 30uA.

Susheel Nuguru — Fri, 20 May 2016 08:08:25 GMT

app_timer is RTC1 so it should not use that much current. Are you sure that there is no other difference in your code? can you put snippets of your code here?

RE: Using GPIO in LOW POWER MODE consuming less than 30uA.

Harsha — Mon, 16 May 2016 18:06:53 GMT

Hi Keith, Thanks for your answer. I am using a custom board. If I blink the LED using RTC then the consumption is 17uA. When I use app TImer then the consumption is 1.2mA. Unfortunately there are only two RTCs available in NRF51 series. RTC0 is used by Softdevice and RTC1 is used by app timers to do the BLE operations. Suggest me some way to do this blinking.

RE: Using GPIO in LOW POWER MODE consuming less than 30uA.

keith v — Mon, 16 May 2016 17:02:19 GMT

do you have serial enabled? are you still attached to the debugger i.e. a segger j-link? Both of those cause high currents. You have to disconnect the debugger and then reset the device to get low power.

But LESS than 30Ua? thats pushing it!