Very high current Issue with RF52832

[Mabbas]

Hello,

I bought Nrf 52832 breakout board.

Actually i want to measure the current consumption of chip as we want to use it. While advertising 26 bytes it consume really high current (10mA).

I want to ask it is real current consumed by chip(which i suppose is not true.)

Why the Nrf 52832 breakout board needs to high current. I am totally unable to get the real current needed for the chip.

Could you please help me to resolve the issue?

waiting for kind help.

[Jørgen Holmefjord]

Hi Mabbas,

The current draw when radio is active can be 10 mA, or even more, depending on your configuration. The average current consumption on the other hand, should be much lower. You can check the expected average current consumption using the nRF52 Online Power Profiler.

Even with shortest possible advertising interval and max output power, the calculator show average consumption of 629 uA with a payload of 26 bytes.

Follow up questions:

• How do you measure the current consumption? I would recommend getting our Power Profiler Kit if you do not allready have good equipment.
• What are the advertising interval and output power for your device?
• Are you using DC/DC power mode? (Note that your board must have additional components for this to work)
• Do you put the device in system on/idle mode in your code?

This post is a great staring point for reducing your current consumption. It is written for nRF51 series, but most of the principles apply to nRF52 series as well.

Best regards,

Jørgen

[Jørgen Holmefjord]

The supply to the additional components of the nRF5x DK is separated from the nRF5x chip and should not affect the current measurement. Check out the Current Measurement section in the nRF52 DK User Guide.