High Power Consumption without any reason.

[DerManni]

Hello Guys,

I made a MySensor-Sensor out of an Arduino Pro Mini 3V3 8Mhz Clone a BME280 and a NRF24L01 module. During sending the data my power consumption is about 17-18mA, which is often mentioned in the forum.
But in sleepmode there is a much higher power consumption of 4mA than I expected and also mentioned in the topics.

Could you please give me a hint where I had to look for the high power consumption? LED and Regulator are removed.

My Code:

// Enable Debugging
#define MY_DEBUG            //for MySensors connection problems
#define PROG_DEBUG          //for code debugging

// Enable and select radio type attached
#define MY_RADIO_NRF24

//MySensors Identification (necessary before MySensors.h)
#define MY_NODE_ID 1

#include <SPI.h>
#include <MySensors.h>
#include <Seeed_BME280.h>
#include <Wire.h>

BME280 bme280;

//MySensors Sensors Identification
#define CHILD_ID_HUM 0
#define CHILD_ID_TEMP 1
#define CHILD_ID_BARO 2
#define CHILD_ID_VOLTAGE 254

//For battery voltage measurement
int BATTERY_SENSE_PIN = A0;       // select the input pin for the battery sense point
//unsigned long SLEEP_TIME = 5*60000;   // sleep time between reads (seconds * 1000 milliseconds)
unsigned long SLEEP_TIME = 10000;   // sleep time between reads (seconds * 1000 milliseconds)
float VinMax = 3.23;          //VinMax calculated from VoltageDivider with 1,1V as referenz (A0);
float VinMin = 2.6;           //VinMin is 1xCR2450 2.6V
float VrefMulti = 0.0031543;       //calculated from VinMax/1023

//R1 = 910000;      Voltage Divider R1
//R2 = 470000;      Voltage Divider R2

// Set this offset if the sensor has a permanent small offset to the real temperatures
//#define SENSOR_TEMP_OFFSET 0

bool metric = true;

MyMessage msgHum(CHILD_ID_HUM, V_HUM);
MyMessage msgTemp(CHILD_ID_TEMP, V_TEMP);
MyMessage msgBaro(CHILD_ID_BARO, V_PRESSURE);
MyMessage msgVoltage(CHILD_ID_VOLTAGE, V_VOLTAGE);


void presentation()  
{ 
  // Send the sketch version information to the gateway
  sendSketchInfo("BME280", "1.1");

  // Register all sensors to gw (they will be created as child devices)
  present(CHILD_ID_HUM, S_HUM);
  present(CHILD_ID_TEMP, S_TEMP);
  present(CHILD_ID_BARO, S_BARO);
  present(CHILD_ID_VOLTAGE, S_MULTIMETER);

  metric = getControllerConfig().isMetric;
}


void setup()
{
  if(!bme280.init()){
    Serial.println("BME280 Could not be initialised!");
  }
  else {
    Serial.println("BME280 initialised!");
  }
  analogReference(INTERNAL);          // use the 1.1 V internal reference
    
}


void loop()      
{  
  Serial.println("Waking up...");
  #ifdef PROG_DEBUG
    unsigned long StartTime = millis();
    Serial.println("------NEW READING------");
  #endif

  //calculate values
  int sensorValue = analogRead(BATTERY_SENSE_PIN);
  float batteryV  = sensorValue * VrefMulti;
  int Vref0 = (VinMin / VrefMulti);
  float VrefPcnt = (1023 - Vref0) / 100;
  int batteryPcnt = static_cast<int>(((batteryV-VinMin)/(VinMax-VinMin))*100);;
  //Send Battery Voltage
  send(msgVoltage.set(batteryV, 1));

  #ifdef PROG_DEBUG
    //Voltage-Stuff
    Serial.println("-----Voltage-Stuff-----");
    Serial.print("A0-Reading:        ");
    Serial.println(sensorValue);
    Serial.print("VinMax:            ");
    Serial.println(VinMax);
    Serial.print("VinMin:            ");
    Serial.println(VinMin);
    Serial.print("Vref0:             ");
    Serial.println(Vref0);
    Serial.print("VrefPcnt:          ");
    Serial.println(VrefPcnt);
    
    //Battery-Stuff
    Serial.print("Battery Voltage:   ");
    Serial.print(batteryV);
    Serial.println(" V");

    Serial.print("Battery percent1:  ");
    Serial.print(batteryPcnt);
    Serial.println(" %");
    Serial.println("-----------------------");
  #endif
    sendBatteryLevel(batteryPcnt);
    
      
  // Get temperature from BME280
  float temperature = bme280.getTemperature();
    send(msgTemp.set(temperature, 1));
  #ifdef PROG_DEBUG
    Serial.print("Temp:              ");
    Serial.print(temperature);
    Serial.println("C");
  #endif
  
  // Get humidity from BME280
  float humidity = bme280.getHumidity();
    send(msgHum.set(humidity, 1));
  #ifdef PROG_DEBUG
    Serial.print("Humidity:          ");
    Serial.print(humidity);
    Serial.println("%");
  #endif
  
  // Get pressure from BME280
  float pressure = (bme280.getPressure()/100);
  send(msgBaro.set(pressure, 1));
  #ifdef PROG_DEBUG
    Serial.print("Pressure:          ");
    Serial.print(pressure);
    Serial.println("hPa");
  #endif
  
  #ifdef PROG_DEBUG
    unsigned long CurrentTime = millis();
    unsigned long ElapsedTime = CurrentTime - StartTime;
    Serial.print("Looptime:          ");
    Serial.print(ElapsedTime);
    Serial.println("ms");
  #endif

  // Sleep for a while to save energy
  Serial.print("Going to sleep for (Seconds): ");
  Serial.println(SLEEP_TIME/1000);
  sleep(SLEEP_TIME); 
}

Thanks in advance.
Tom

[sundberg84]

@DerManni - what happens when/if you unplug the sensor - same? If not, you have narrowed down the problem.

How do you power the node?

[DerManni]

@sundberg84
I also unplugged the sensor, nothing happend to the power consumption in both states.

The note is powered through an CP2102 USB 2.0 zu TTL UART on 3V3. Later I planned to power through an CR2450 coin cell.

Unfortunately I cannot unplug the NRF-Module because it is soldered directly to the following shield. (https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/uXIff7XO)

Could it be an faulty NRF-module?

[gohan]

Try a longer sleep time then disconnect sensor like previously said and see the consumption, if it doesn't change unplug vcc of the radio module too.