Understanding Electron Current in Sleep Network Standby Mode

General
1

General question here - I have a National Instruments DAQ setup to measure the current draw from the LiPo battery on an Electron. I’ve set it up this way because I don’t have a current scope probe. I am able to see a time-based graph of the current draw and am curious on where these 90 mA current spikes are coming from while in SLEEP_NETWORK_STANDBY mode. They occur every 110 ms.

Is is the STM32F205 micro, U-Blox cellular module, BQ24195, regulator, MAX17043 fuel gauge?

If you average the y-values in this time graph out, you get an approximate constant DC current: 10 mA

Obviously, this measurement method is not the best because of the resolution, but still curious on what circuit these spikes come from.

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Hi, Did you ever work out what it was? I was thinking it was the battery charging module??

3

I would bet it’s the cellular modem in sleep standby mode staying connected to the network.

A quick way to test this is sleep without the Sleep Network Standby mode.

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4

@ric_hard I would like to agree with @RWB 's answer (Cellular module). I will run a test this weekend to do regular sleep and also sleep network standby. Was hoping someone from Particle would eventually answer this, but they probably didn’t see it.

5

We can always ping @tylercpeacock or @rickkas7

6

I believe it’s the cellular module. I see those spikes as well in SLEEP_NETWORK_STANDBY mode, but current is flat in pure SLEEP_MODE_DEEP.

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