Current consumption when using rtc, ppi and gpiote

RE: Current consumption when using rtc, ppi and gpiote

DeanOSLI — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 17:01:59 GMT

Has the GPIOTE IN issue been corrected?

RE: Current consumption when using rtc, ppi and gpiote

Akhil — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 06:12:05 GMT

Is there any chance GPIOTE IN bug will be resolved in near future for the 3rd hardware revision?

RE: Current consumption when using rtc, ppi and gpiote

Nikolaj — Fri, 15 May 2015 08:04:09 GMT

Hi Stefan, is there an official document describing the high current consumption when using GPIOTE IN? I'm writing a Bachelor Thesis and my project is based on the NRF51822, so I need a reference when describing the current consumption.

RE: Current consumption when using rtc, ppi and gpiote

Stefan Birnir Sverrisson — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 08:50:59 GMT

The GPIOTE IN events and OUT tasks have had current consumption issues both for our first revision hardware and the current second revision hardware. We have recommended not to use it for low current applications. The reason was that the high frequency 16MHz clock is always enabled while the GPIOTE IN events or OUT tasks are enabled, consuming about ~1mA of current.

Until now, use of the GPIOTE IN events have been avoided by using the GPIOTE PORT event instead, which is very low current (<1uA). The port event however does have a drawback because it does not know from which pin the interrupt was generated. However, the app_button library uses the PORT event and compensates for its drawback. The GPIOTE OUT tasks have however not been usable until now for low current applications.

The third revision hardware of the nRF51 has a solution for the GPIOTE OUT tasks, which has very low current consumption (<1uA). The third revision nRF51 hardware will be released in a few days. The third revision hardware still does not have a solution for the GPIOTE IN events, they still consume high current, so for low current applications, use the GPIOTE PORT event instead or the app_button libary.

RE: Current consumption when using rtc, ppi and gpiote

Jose Xavier — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 13:26:00 GMT

Did you contacted nordic directly? they tell you something about it?

RE: Current consumption when using rtc, ppi and gpiote

stanley_c — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 23:40:50 GMT

Hi Nordic, since my application need work in low power condition with pin toggling. Do you have any idea on high current drawn from gpiote? Is it normal or some kind of hardware issue? Thanks a lot.

RE: Current consumption when using rtc, ppi and gpiote

stanley_c — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 23:34:56 GMT

Thanks for your information. I re-check my code, as u said the current seems drawn from gpiote "nrf_gpiote_task_config". However, the current consumption of gpiote block is 0.1uA in output mode and 100uA even it's in in input mode. (nRF51822 Product Specification v1.3 section 8.10 GPIOTE specifications).

RE: Current consumption when using rtc, ppi and gpiote

Erland Lewin — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 11:13:48 GMT

I asked about this too, but have not received a reply from Nordic Semi. See: devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../power-use-with-gpiote-is-too-high

My impressions is that there may be a hardware bug causing the CPU not to go to sleep properly when using GPIOTE. Even my minimal program with only one line of code that only enables GPIOTE causes too high current use:


	NRF_GPIOTE->CONFIG[GPIOTE_CHANNEL_NUMBER] = 
(GPIOTE_CONFIG_MODE_Task *shiftleft* GPIOTE_CONFIG_MODE_Pos)     |
                                         ((uint32_t)outPin *shiftleft* GPIOTE_CONFIG_PSEL_Pos)     |
                                         ((uint32_t)NRF_GPIOTE_POLARITY_TOGGLE *shiftleft* GPIOTE_CONFIG_POLARITY_Pos) |
                                         ((uint32_t)NRF_GPIOTE_INITIAL_VALUE_HIGH *shiftleft* GPIOTE_CONFIG_OUTINIT_Pos);

Please Nordic Semi, can you confirm this problem, and hopefully give a work-around!