Hello!!!
I am using Particle Xenon to retrieve a value from a sensor every 8ms, store it and send it to Boron every 5 min. I want to minimize power consumption.
I am switching Mesh on and off based on my requirements. But I want to reduce the power consumed to the minimum possible level
I couldn’t use deep mode sleep because I need to retain the data in my memory, I couldn’t use normal sleep modes since it’s not available for milliseconds.
So, is there any other way of reducing the power consumption for Xenon??
@reachkvenkat94, 8ms is not a long interval to sleep for. You might want to consider going to STOP mode (regular) sleep (which maintains memory content) with wake-on-pin and use an external 125Hz clock source to drive the wake-up pin. You could use a cheap NE555 timer circuit. Not ideal but it should work. Otherwise, what you are doing is about all that can be done currently.
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If timer is running , does STOP mode affects the timer??
Is it possible, for example, to reduce the clock frequency to 8MHz, turn some parts of the chip off?
Also what is the best way to power the xenon? I mean what pin has the highest efficiency in terms of power conversion.
As usual thanks Peekay123 for the expertise.
@reachkvenkat94, the timer I suggested is external and free running, ie, “unstoppable”. You should, however, use a GPIO output to start/stop the NE555 to get accurate 8ms timing. The GPIO pin would hold the RESET pin of the 555 LOW (preventing oscillation) until the Xenon is ready to sleep again at which point the pin is set HIGH allowing the timer to run again. Using a pull-up resistor on the 555 RESET pin will ensure it absolutely runs while the Xenon is sleeping.
You could also use a simple gated astable multivibrator using some NAND gates as well.
I tried using SLEEP function. But it takes around 100ms to wakeup. Is is possible to reduce the clock frequency in Particle Xenon which reduces the power consumption??