nRF51822 unprogrammed power consumption

RE: nRF51822 unprogrammed power consumption

barry.haworth — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 20:27:48 GMT

Thanks John and Michael for your feedback. Very helpful indeed, we will investigate Michael's expectations of the current and take it from there.

Once again, thanks guys

RE: nRF51822 unprogrammed power consumption

Michael Dietz — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 15:42:47 GMT

When the system enters ON mode it will, by default, reside in the low power sub mode. So worst case the chip should draw 2.6 uA (according to the product spec). Best case the chip is in System OFF mode and it's drawing .6 uA.

The buck converter will only kick in when the RADIO is active if you have it enabled.

My guess is that the chip is in System OFF mode until you program it (entering Debug Interface mode will turn it ON).

RE: nRF51822 unprogrammed power consumption

John — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 12:26:02 GMT

I am unable to answer your question regarding the power consumption of a unprogrammed part. Hopefully someone can provide an answer as I would be a bit nervous determining that number by experimentation.

That said, a potential solution to avoid needing to know this is to purchase your parts pre-programmed through a distributor that supports pre-programmed parts. It doesn't need to be programmed with your shipping code, just a simple set of code that puts the device into its lowest power state. You can reprogram it later in your production process to get your latest code on the device.