Consuming higher current @ 1 ms advertising interval as expected according to online BLE power profiler.

[[email protected]]

Hi,

I'm using nRF52805. I need to advertise BLE continuously according my application but also have to reduce power consumption because device is battery operated.

Currently advertising interval is 1 ms and it's consuming around 4mA with 3.3V supply which is too much high for my application.

Kindly, suggest how I can reduce the power consumption,what will be the advertising interval and all related setting need to do for less power consumption.

Thanks 

[[email protected]]

Hi Edvin,

Thank you for yor reply. Logging Module is disabled & radio is used for LE application because i'm using S112  softdevice, only LE is possible.

[Edvin]

And you still see 4ma average current consumption? Is this something that I can reproduce? I assume that you are using a custom board, since you are using the nRF52805. Is there some way for me to reproduce this in the office? Did you try to run the same application on some sort of DK? Do you see the same current consumption there? How are you measuring the current consumption in the first place?

I just noticed that in your screenshot from the online power calculator, you are using 40ms advertising interval. Just so that you are aware.

Can I have a look at your application? Perhaps I will notice something being enabled that doesn't need to be. Please remember that this is a public ticket. If you want to send the application privately, you can send it as an attachment to me directly here in DevZone by hovering my name and clicking "send a private message".

Best regards,

Edvin

[[email protected]]

thanks Edvin,

I shared complete application code privately, please go through it and let me know the, how to implement power optimization.  

[Edvin]

Ok, so when I asked whether you were using any other peripherals, the answer is yes, then. Can you please try to disable the UART in your application and measure the current consumption then?

The online power profiler only considers what is needed for basic Bluetooth Low Energy operations, such as advertisements or maintaining a connection. If you, however, are using other peripherals, such as the UART in this case, or if you use any other peripherals, their current consumption will come on top of the current from the online power profiler. 

So try to disable the other peripherals. From what I can tell by just looking at your main.c file, it looks like you are only using the UART. Try to disable that and measure the current again.

How do you measure the current? Can you show me a photo/screenshot? Are you using a multimeter? Are you able to isolate the current consumption for the nRF, or do you measure external components on the PCB as well? Do you have anything that would typically draw a lot of power? LEDs? Motors? display? 3rd party sensors?

Best regars,

Edvin

[JoEi]

Hi,

did you unplug your debugger?

4mA is something I typically see, when the debugger (j-link) is connected.
After disconnecting the debugger the nRF needs a power cycle to exit its debug mode.