Power consumption custom board, BLE

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

bjorn-spockeli — Wed, 09 May 2018 12:11:54 GMT

adrisecmotic: This multimeter is not accurate enough, you need a DMM that can accuratly average over 1uA to 15mA range.

I recommend that you either get your hands on our nRF Power Profiler Kit or a high-end multimeter/ lab multimeter/Power analyzer.

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

adrisecmotic — Wed, 09 May 2018 11:41:29 GMT

This multimeter:

https://www.electrodh.com/catalogo/ver-item.action?id=2887&d=1

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

bjorn-spockeli — Wed, 09 May 2018 09:27:40 GMT

That does not sound right at all. Enabling the DCDC should significantly reduce the RADIO TX/RX currents, not lead to an increase of 5,7mA.

Which multimeter specifically? Do you have a link to the specs of the DMM? Is the dynamic range of the DMM is wide enough to give accurate measurements from 1 µA
to 15 mA?

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

adrisecmotic — Wed, 09 May 2018 08:58:31 GMT

Enabling DCDC mode consumption increase up to 8mA

I'm measuring the current with a multimeter

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

adrisecmotic — Wed, 09 May 2018 08:57:38 GMT

EASY_DMA are both disabled, and yes, nRF52 goes to sleep when power_manage()

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

bjorn-spockeli — Tue, 08 May 2018 08:59:02 GMT

hmolesworth: Yes, enabling the DCDC will lower the RADIO TX and RX currents.

adrisecmotic: How are you measuring the current consumption, i.e. whats your setup?

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

hmolesworth — Mon, 07 May 2018 15:23:37 GMT

If not already doing so - and the default in examples is not - switch from the LDO regulator to the DC-DC convertor, assuming of course you have the correct external components fitted (or are using a module such as Rigado BMD-350 which has these). This may give you the improvement you require; also note that using the internal DC-DC (which generates 1.3 volts) you may no longer require an external regulator and can connect Vdd direct to a coin cell provided the peripherals share Vdd or have level shifters.

   // DC-DC power supply enable, saves about xmA at 2.7 volts battery over using intenal LDO regulator
   nrf_power_dcdcen_set(true);

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

bjorn-spockeli — Mon, 07 May 2018 14:57:01 GMT

Ok, you'll just have to keep those functions in. I can't see any thing in the interrupt_init() function would lead to a 2.3mA current consumption.

Are you using the TWI and SPI peripherals with DMA, i.e. you have checked SPIx_USE_EASY_DMA or TWIx_USE_EASY_DMA 0 ? See, devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../130524

Also are you able to verify that the nRF52 actually goes to sleep when you call the power_manage function and not wakes up immediatly after? You could for instance toggle a pin right after power_manage() and monitor this when you're connected. The pin should then only toogle on every connection interval if you do not have any other interrupts waking up the CPU.

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

adrisecmotic — Mon, 07 May 2018 08:18:31 GMT

If I comment that code, the sensors are in normal mode, and it consumes about 20mA, I've tested the blinky example and that is the consumption.

Unfortunately, I haven't got that kind of board.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interrupt function:

void interrupt_init(void){

lfclk_config();
app_timer_init();

}

lfclk_config():

static void lfclk_config(void)
{
ret_code_t err_code = nrf_drv_clock_init();
if (err_code!=NRF_SUCCESS){

err_code = nrf_drv_clock_init();
nrf_delay_ms(5);

}

nrf_drv_clock_lfclk_request(NULL);
}

app_timer_init():

ret_code_t app_timer_init(void)
{
// Stop RTC to prevent any running timers from expiring (in case of reinitialization)
rtc1_stop();

// Initialize operation queue
m_op_queue.first = 0;
m_op_queue.last = 0;
m_op_queue.size = APP_TIMER_CONFIG_OP_QUEUE_SIZE+1;

mp_timer_id_head = NULL;
m_ticks_elapsed_q_read_ind = 0;
m_ticks_elapsed_q_write_ind = 0;

#if APP_TIMER_WITH_PROFILER
m_max_user_op_queue_utilization = 0;
#endif

NVIC_ClearPendingIRQ(SWI_IRQn);
NVIC_SetPriority(SWI_IRQn, SWI_IRQ_PRI);
NVIC_EnableIRQ(SWI_IRQn);

rtc1_init(APP_TIMER_CONFIG_RTC_FREQUENCY);

m_ticks_latest = rtc1_counter_get();

return NRF_SUCCESS;
}

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lastly, preferred connection interval:

#define MIN_CONN_INTERVAL MSEC_TO_UNITS(500, UNIT_1_25_MS)
#define MAX_CONN_INTERVAL MSEC_TO_UNITS(1000, UNIT_1_25_MS)

I also tried with:

#define MIN_CONN_INTERVAL (uint16_t)(MSEC_TO_UNITS(15, UNIT_1_25_MS))
#define MAX_CONN_INTERVAL (uint16_t)(MSEC_TO_UNITS(100, UNIT_1_25_MS))

I could send you the whole project to make easier your help.

Thank you.

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

bjorn-spockeli — Fri, 04 May 2018 13:45:15 GMT

I took a quick look at the datasheets of the sensors, if they're all in the lowest power state they should contribute with

Si1133: 0.550uA

BMX Acc + Gyro + Mag: 2.1uA + 5uA + 1uA =

STC3115: 2uA

---------------------------------------------------------------
Total contribution from Sensors: ~ 11uA

Just to be certain that its not these sensors that are the culprits, could you comment out all code that refers to these sensors in your main and then redo the measurements? The best case would be if you have a board that is only populated with the nRF52832 and not the sensors. I also see that you call the function interrupt init, could you post the code from that function? I does not seem to be defined in main.c

Lastly, what kind of preferred connection interval have you configured?

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

adrisecmotic — Fri, 04 May 2018 12:41:27 GMT

Done, but the consumption is the same

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

bjorn-spockeli — Fri, 04 May 2018 12:28:27 GMT

I was asking if you are de-initalizing them before going to sleep. Any peripheral that explicitly enabled before going to sleep will be active during sleep, i.e. if you want the lowest current consumption, then you should initalize the drivers when you wake-up and de-initialize them before you go to sleep.

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

adrisecmotic — Fri, 04 May 2018 12:25:03 GMT

Hi bjorn-spockeli, yes, they are initialized before that function

RE: Power consumption custom board, BLE

bjorn-spockeli — Fri, 04 May 2018 12:17:54 GMT

Have you de-initialized the I2C and the SPI drivers prior to going to sleep with the power_manage() function?