6 ms·

Wireless connectivity is great but the esp32 has terrible power consumption due to the wifi. A lot of times you can get by with Bluetooth. Of course, one then

Wireless connectivity is great but the esp32 has terrible power consumption due to the wifi. A lot of times you can get by with Bluetooth. Of course, one then needs an app and a phone or other host device but the power consumption on Nordic Bluetooth chips is just miniscule.

steve_adams_86 4y ago
I guess you could toggle wifi on and off to conserve power. The S3 uses about 20mA without wifi, which isn’t too bad. It’s on par with the Pi Pico and Arduino Nano Connect as I recall. They all guzzle power when wifi is enabled, otherwise idle fairly low and peak around 80-120mA depending on processor power.
- jareklupinski 4y ago
  i just finished an esp32 design with incredibly aggressive power savings as the primary goal it saves persistent variables to non-volatile storage and deep-sleeps at 15-20uA according to my power profiler 2, waking up on a timer when it wakes up, connects, checks battery, and updates display, it can peak 350mA, but mostly stays around 100-150mA while it works
  - steve_adams_86 4y ago
    Awesome, I've been curious about deep sleeping. How long does it take to come back online?
    - jareklupinski 4y ago
      Correlating to current measurements, my first Serial log shows up almost as soon as I can see the current spiking from waking up (within a half-second) I haven't timed it super precisely (my off-state is 30 min and my on-state is 4-5 seconds), but definitely going to check this for thoroughly in my next project, which will wake from deep sleep on button press; curious if there's some delay as everything powers on.
cuttysnark 4y ago
The official Watchy firmware is designed to put the esp32 into deep sleep and only wake to update the display, which being e-ink doesn't need any further power to hold its position until the next update. In deep sleep no radios are on and the esp32 uses very small amounts of power. In my experience, I usually have to plug it into charge every ~10 days. As far as bluetooth on Watchy goes, it's more useful for OTA updates than anything else. When in this mode, Watchy's firmware can be sent as a .bin over bluetooth. This takes only a few minutes and then the ble radio is turned off. No real hit the battery. The other [quicker] way to flash the firmware is via usb, during which time the battery is charging. What I like about Watchy is that it requires no phone or apps, is running firmware I wrote and flashed, and occasionally calls my server for data if I need it.

steve_adams_86 4y ago

I guess you could toggle wifi on and off to conserve power. The S3 uses about 20mA without wifi, which isn’t too bad. It’s on par with the Pi Pico and Arduino Nano Connect as I recall. They all guzzle power when wifi is enabled, otherwise idle fairly low and peak around 80-120mA depending on processor power.

jareklupinski 4y ago
i just finished an esp32 design with incredibly aggressive power savings as the primary goal it saves persistent variables to non-volatile storage and deep-sleeps at 15-20uA according to my power profiler 2, waking up on a timer when it wakes up, connects, checks battery, and updates display, it can peak 350mA, but mostly stays around 100-150mA while it works
- steve_adams_86 4y ago
  Awesome, I've been curious about deep sleeping. How long does it take to come back online?
  - jareklupinski 4y ago
    Correlating to current measurements, my first Serial log shows up almost as soon as I can see the current spiking from waking up (within a half-second) I haven't timed it super precisely (my off-state is 30 min and my on-state is 4-5 seconds), but definitely going to check this for thoroughly in my next project, which will wake from deep sleep on button press; curious if there's some delay as everything powers on.

cuttysnark 4y ago

The official Watchy firmware is designed to put the esp32 into deep sleep and only wake to update the display, which being e-ink doesn't need any further power to hold its position until the next update. In deep sleep no radios are on and the esp32 uses very small amounts of power. In my experience, I usually have to plug it into charge every ~10 days. As far as bluetooth on Watchy goes, it's more useful for OTA updates than anything else. When in this mode, Watchy's firmware can be sent as a .bin over bluetooth. This takes only a few minutes and then the ble radio is turned off. No real hit the battery. The other [quicker] way to flash the firmware is via usb, during which time the battery is charging. What I like about Watchy is that it requires no phone or apps, is running firmware I wrote and flashed, and occasionally calls my server for data if I need it.