NRF51 current abrupt change

[liu]

hello, I uses NRF51822 to make a beacon with RTC. When it works initially, the churrent is small about 330uA，but after a few minutes it becomes 1.1mA and stable. I donn't konow why.

[nemik]

Check your error handler and if you're running in a debug mode. If there is some error occurring, maybe it's stuck in a while loop or restarting. That would probably use more than 1.1mA though, do you have a way to see the current over time on an oscilloscope? Seeing the current spikes for the beacon transmissions and what's happening after the few minutes will help you a lot in debugging.

[Stian Røed Hafskjold]

Can you describe your setup please. Hardware, how you measure current, software you are using etc.

[liu]

hello, I use a beacon program of S130. But i add some peripheral, RTC,SPI,USART. When the beacon works, i put a ammeter in whole circuit. At this time the current is 330uA. Later, i shut down advertising,USART and SPI, let RTC wake beacon to adv every 15min.Meanwhile, a int pin connects to G-sensor can wake the beacon also. But now i find two error. The first is current when i shut the adv is 30uA, i think it shoule be less than 10uA because i have shut down all peripheral not used and set gpio not used to output and high.I used the chip in DCDC mode. The second trouble is current abrupt change from 30uA to 1.1mA in above mode.Later, current keep 1.1mA not change. Now ,the beacon still can work normally. Thanks.I hope you can give me some comments.

[Stian Røed Hafskjold]

Are you using GPIOTE IN event for the g-sensor interrupt pin? This consumes current in idle mode. You should configure to use GPIO PORT event.

For the 1.1mA I suspect that the chip enter debug mode. Please see Kenneth's answer in this one: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/16530/issue-with-nrf51-unexpectedly-entering-debug-mode

You can also post a hex file if you want. Then I can do some measurements here.

[liu]

hello,

Thanks for your help.This is my hex file with S110.6406.nrf51422_xxac_s110.hex