Quick experiment: Xenon current consumption (+Argon)

Connectivity BLE // NFC
,
1

Hi Folks,

I am sharing the current consumption of Xenon I measured quickly just for my curiosity. Thought there might be someone else also interested.

XenonCurrentChart
XenonCurrentChart1024Ă—441 36.3 KB

  • Axis: X=millisecond, Y=mA
  • What it does: powering on at the leftmost side, establishing the network in ~6 seconds, and then sending the voltage of an analog pin by Mesh.publish() every 10 seconds
  • Observation: ~17mA for normal CPU cycles (including delay()) and ~35mA for communication
  • I used INA219+Arduino to measure the current. The power source is USB 5V dropped down to 3.3V by my own regulator, which is eventually connected to the 3V3 input of Xenon. Like this:
    XenonCurrentEquipment
    XenonCurrentEquipment768Ă—1024 541 KB
  • I also have the similar measurement of Argon. I can share it as well if there are any interests.

Just my two cents. Hope someone may find it interesting.

Happy New Year and Happy Hacking,
Tomoto

5 Likes
2

That is really helpful. Thank you very much. It would be great to see the results you have for the Argon as well.

3

@ColinL, thank you for your comment. I will share the result for Argon here:

Argon-startup-current-all
Argon-startup-current-all1217Ă—628 9.63 KB

Magnification of the comb-like pattern:

Argon-startup-current-magnified
Argon-startup-current-magnified944Ă—626 9.86 KB

  • Axis: X=millisecond, Y=mA
  • What it does: powering on at the leftmost side, establishing the network in ~30 seconds (I do not remember exactly), and then sending a cloud event by Particle.publish() when Mesh.subscribe() receives something from mesh nodes (Xenon’s) and at some other occasions
  • Observation: ~40mA at idle, ~110mA spike every 100ms, and 200~400mA (largely variable) for WiFi communication

Here are my thoughts trying to understand this chart. (Just my guess, it could be wrong!)

  • It looks like ESP32 is at the “light sleep mode” when idle. It would take ~20mA as to my previous ESP8266 experience.
  • It looks like ESP32 wakes up every 100ms for house keeping (probably processing event subscriptions etc.). This “working” state would take 90mA as to my previous ESP8266 experience likewise.
  • Since Argon is like Xenon+ESP32, if you add up Xenon’s current consumption = 17mA~35mA as shown in my previous post, then the total current consumption would be pretty much like this chart.

Hope this helps.

Happy Hacking,
Tomoto

1 Like
4

I have realized that the Xenon’s current is slightly waving and its cycle appears to be the same as the status LDE breathing. :slight_smile:

1 Like
5

That’s great, thank you very much. It will be interesting to see how the “deep sleep” mode of Xenon goes once implemented.

1 Like