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Current consumption in nRF52832

We are a newbie team developing some measurement tests with the nRF52832 DK in order to evaluate the BLE from nRF52832 QFAA80 (s132 and pca10040) for IoT applications.

Using the ble_app_beacon to measure the current consumption while nrf52832 is advertising and the ble_app_uart to measure the current consumption while a BLE connection. Both modified in order to perform the tests properly.

The fact is the measured expected values are really further from the expected ones.


BLE ADVERTISEMENT TEST

main.c

where the BLE_TX_POWER is 0x00 (0dBm), the APP_BEACON_INFO_LENGTH = 0x17 (Bytes) and the NON_CONNECTABLE_ADV_INTERVAL = 200 (ms).

The expected average current consumption would be 0,6 mA and the peak current consumption 1 mA as much.

BLE CONNECTION TEST

main.c

where the uart_event_handle(app_uart_evt_t * p_event) function was modified in order to work avoiding the use of the uart connection and sending ble packets of 20B of payload data.

Following the nrf52832 PS, the expected aveage current consumption when 0 dBm TX @ 1 Mb/s Bluetooth Low Energy mode, Clock = HFXO [mA] should be 7.1 and when RX @ 1 Mb/s Bluetooth Low Energy mode, Clock = HFXO [mA] should be 6.5.


I read in forum that power profiling example could be more appropiated just in order to perform this kind of tests but all the question and answers are about older versions.

Thank you so much for your help and congrats for the support supplied by nordic

  • We actually have measured current consumption and made a tool to estimate the current consumption based on these measurements. You can find the tool here: devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../

    The measurements/estimates are only with DCDC enabled, as this greatly reduce the current consumption, especially when running from 3V battery. The DCDC is not enabled by default in the SDK examples. You can enable it with this function:

    err_code = sd_power_dcdc_mode_set(NRF_POWER_DCDC_ENABLE);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
    

    For the beacon example the current consumption should be a bit less since it does not require the radio to switch to RX during the advertisement event (unless you use scan response packets).

    What was your measured values for advertising and connection? 0.6mA estimated average current seems too high when advertising interval is 200ms and packet size is 23 (0x17) bytes.

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