About the power consumption of nRF9160 in NCS 1.6.0.

[Kenny]

Hello, All,

I am using nRF9160 for product development and would like to know a few more important parameters:

What is the power consumption of an NB-iot network using nRF160 to stay connected without sending data? PSM mode is disabled.

And what is the power consumption of sending or receiving data using an NB-iot network? (Mqtt used for debugging to send and receive data)

I need to use the UART to send data all the time. How much power consumption will be generated if the UART is always on?

When I set CONFIG_SERIAL=y, how much power consumption will increase?

Will there be some other macros that will increase power consumption?

Hope to get your reply soon, thanks !

[Håkon Alseth]

Hi,

 

I am using nRF9160 for product development and would like to know a few more important parameters:

What is the power consumption of an NB-iot network using nRF160 to stay connected without sending data? PSM mode is disabled.

And what is the power consumption of sending or receiving data using an NB-iot network? (Mqtt used for debugging to send and receive data)

Have you tried our power calculator for the nRF9160?

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/power

You can select nb1 here and see an estimate.

 

That being said, this is provided as an estimate. The network you are connecting to is highly likely to provide different timing, so we do recommend that you measure on-target.

I need to use the UART to send data all the time. How much power consumption will be generated if the UART is always on?

When I set CONFIG_SERIAL=y, how much power consumption will increase?

Will there be some other macros that will increase power consumption?

If you enable the serial module, it will also enable the uart receiver, which consumes approx. 500 uA in sleep.

I would recommend that you look at the lpuart driver if you need the UART receiver in sleep:

https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/1.7.0/nrf/drivers/uart_nrf_sw_lpuart.html#uart-nrf-sw-lpuart

 

Kind regards,

Håkon

[Kenny]

I know there is a tool for this calculation, but I haven’t tried it. I would like to ask if you have any actual test values.

I will use this calculation later

And what about the power consumption of sending and receiving data using UART all the time?

[Håkon Alseth]

Hi,

 

Kenny said:

I would like to ask if you have any actual test values.

The calculator is based on actual tests, but again; the network you are connecting to will highly likely give you different default timing values in the different modes, meaning; you can use the power calculator as a reference or a "ballpark" number, but ultimately you need to verify this in the network that you're deploying your devices to.

 

Kenny said:

And what about the power consumption of sending and receiving data using UART all the time?

This would be application specific, based on how often the CPU will be involved. You need to measure this on your board.

 

Kind regards,

Håkon