NRF52840-DK current consumption measurement

[AP040]

Hello, I just started to understand the NRF52840-DK. I want to measure the power consumption of NRF52 with broadcasting some data to air. How I will do it? Is there any example in SDK to put the device in sleep mode and I can broadcast the data.

I want to calculate how many days/months or years my device will work with cell operated.

I am new to this concept to measure the current consumption of the device. So, give some proper steps to do it.

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi Arpan, 

I suggest to use the Power Profiler Kit(PPK) with Power Profiling Application to measure current. 

The PPK can be used in conjunction with the nRF5 DK to measure current on the nRF5 DK or on an external board. The hardware is delivered with an application that is installed using nRF Connect for Desktop. There are several measurement configurations, which are described in the guide.

-Amanda H.

[AP040]

Hi Amanda, I know that Power Profiler Kit will be helping to do this stuff but this is not available with me. I want to do it with only having the NRF52840-DK.

Moreover, I want to broadcasting the data at some regular interval of time how I do it?

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi Arpan, 

Please see this Current measurement guide: Introduction which describes other possibilities as well which include using an oscilloscope or an ampere meter.

AP040 said:

I want to broadcasting the data at some regular interval of time how I do it?

You can modify the interval in the code. See this post. 

-Amanda H.

[AP040]

Thanks Amanda..!!

Can I send some user-specific data into the advertising packets? If yes, how can I achieve this?

Because when I am check in the ble_peripheral \ ble_app_blinky example the size of the advertising packet is 31bytes but there is one option to support max data length "BLE_GAP_ADV_SET_DATA_SIZE_EXTENDED_MAX_SUPPORTED".

[Amanda Hsieh]

This Bluetooth low energy Advertising, a beginner's tutorial can help you.

-Amanda H. 

[AP040]

Hi Amanda...!!!

Can you give some example to put nrf52840 into sleep with some configurable time. For example, at every 1 min the board goes into the sleep mode and wake-up when the 1 mins time is over and do some task and going back to sleep for 1min.

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

It is answered in this thread. 

-Amanda H.

[AP040]

Is this API (sd_app_evt_wait()) is valid for sleep mode?

I have created one app timer for sending advertising packet when the timer event is triggered.

I want system will on at that stage when it is before going to sleep mode. Do not want to restart it.

Is it valid? Advertising packet not working as I accepted. 

static void nrf_data_mgmt_timeout_handler(void * p_context)
{
      NRF_LOG_INFO("#");
}
ret_code_t data_mgmt_timer_create(void)
{
    ret_code_t ret_code = app_timer_create(&m_data_mgmt_timer,
                                           APP_TIMER_MODE_REPEATED,
                                           nrf_data_mgmt_timeout_handler);
    if (ret_code != NRF_SUCCESS)
    {
        return ret_code;
    }

    return app_timer_start(m_data_mgmt_timer, APP_TIMER_TICKS(5000), NULL);
}

/**@brief Function for application main entry.
 */
int main(void)
{
    // Initialize.
    log_init();
    leds_init();
    timers_init();
    buttons_init();
    power_management_init();
    ble_stack_init();
    gap_params_init();
    gatt_init();
    services_init();
    advertising_init();
    conn_params_init();

    // Start execution.
    NRF_LOG_INFO("Blinky example started.");
    advertising_start();
    data_mgmt_timer_create();
    // Enter main loop.
    for (;;)
    {
        idle_state_handle();
        sd_app_evt_wait();
    }
}

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

The purpose of sd_app_evt_wait() is to do some extra housekeeping for the Softdevice before going to sleep. The function also makes sure that the code does not exit sd_app_evt_wait() unless an application event occurs, such as e.g. UART or ADC interrupt. All the Softdevice examples that use sd_app_evt_wait() in our SDKs should be able to enter sleep mode.

According to your code, it will execute the nrf_data_mgmt_timeout_handler function when the timer event is triggered.

Please take a look at this tutorial.

-Amanda H.