We are seeing some “interesting” behavior where the Photon “sometimes” briefly pulls a lot more current than average.
(Yes, you guessed it, we found out when the Photons drop off the network or reboot out of the blue when run with an apparently under-dimensioned power supply. A Big Capacitor to the rescue…)
Does anybody have any details:
- how often does it happen (we seem to see a recurring period of about 1min 55sec or so…, there may be others)
- just how much current might it be pulling in the worst case, and for how long?
- any ideas what the Photon might be doing when it suddenly pulls so much? Perhaps write to flash?
Also, while we are at it, power consumption during boot seems to be higher than during regular operation. Any idea why that is?
Thanks,
Johannes
What is this average that you are referring to and what is the reference document that you are comparing against?
The specs for a Photon can be found here: https://docs.particle.io/datasheets/photon-datasheet/#technical-specification
Just like trying to understand the behavior here and the reasons for it. Usually it seems to draw about 100mA, and then it bursts to 350mA or so, for maybe a second I’m told.
@jernstlunm, the “burst” you are seeing is due to WiFi establishing a connection which can draw anywhere from 100-350ma. This depends on the distance to the AP and noise in the 2.4GHz band (other APs and devices). Once a wifi connection is established, you’ll see a more nominal (average) current draw as per spec. WiFi was never designed as a low power protocol.
If you boot a Photon in SYSTEM_MODE(MANUAL) where wifi is disabled, you see a much lower current draw overall.
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