💬 ESP-LINK ESP8266 WeMos D1 Mini Adapter Board
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@kalle
Thanks for the links. Itead describes them as "ultra alow power," but I'm wondering: what's ultra low power about them? Aside from turning it off (500na), everything else doesn't seem ultra low power, at least compared to the usual atemega328p + nrf/rfm radio module that we're all used to on this forum.That said, I think the esp8266/85 actually could be made much lower power if it were possible (and it probably is, but I don't know how) to use its radio to simply broadcast a message without first linking to a router. Then, even if the power drain is high while active, it's active period could be kept so short that the energy drain would be quite manageable. Do you happen to know if there's a way to do that?
@NeverDie Itead said this chip is also for creating wearaible devices - so I think it is possible to use it with batteries. The ESP has a deepsleep function but I have no experience with it and don't know how it works - sorry. I have only "hacked" the Sonoff touch wall switch to use it without the terrible cloud app - I don't use it with the mysensors stuff, but maybe it is possible to use such a switch as ESPgateway node (the chip is powered with 3.3V) and we can try to upload the ESPgateway sketch on the switch.
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@NeverDie Itead said this chip is also for creating wearaible devices - so I think it is possible to use it with batteries. The ESP has a deepsleep function but I have no experience with it and don't know how it works - sorry. I have only "hacked" the Sonoff touch wall switch to use it without the terrible cloud app - I don't use it with the mysensors stuff, but maybe it is possible to use such a switch as ESPgateway node (the chip is powered with 3.3V) and we can try to upload the ESPgateway sketch on the switch.
The deep sleep is good enough. What ruins the whole thing, though, is the fairly long re-acquaintance with the wi-fi router once it wakes up. That's where most of the power drain happens. If we could just drive the radio directly, then that problem goes away.
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The deep sleep is good enough. What ruins the whole thing, though, is the fairly long re-acquaintance with the wi-fi router once it wakes up. That's where most of the power drain happens. If we could just drive the radio directly, then that problem goes away.
OK, I just noticed that it supports wi-fi direct (https://www.itead.cc/psf-a85.html), so perhaps that could accomplish it, since that doesn't require the lengthy wi-fi router dance.
The other strange thing is that Itead says its module supports 2x1 MIMO, and yet I see only one antenna port on it.
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The deep sleep is good enough. What ruins the whole thing, though, is the fairly long re-acquaintance with the wi-fi router once it wakes up. That's where most of the power drain happens. If we could just drive the radio directly, then that problem goes away.
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@NeverDie To connect to the router take only 1-2 seconds for my wemos devices (static IP), but ok - maybe this is to long.
I think for a switch, it can be run all the time - or do I misunderstand something@kalle
Yeah, 1-2 seconds is correct, but there's a consensus that for battery operation, because of the high current drain, that's actually 2 to 3 orders of magnitude too long. Think of a typical temp-rh sensor that updates every 5 minutes, for example. It adds up quickly. -
OK, I just noticed that it supports wi-fi direct (https://www.itead.cc/psf-a85.html), so perhaps that could accomplish it, since that doesn't require the lengthy wi-fi router dance.
The other strange thing is that Itead says its module supports 2x1 MIMO, and yet I see only one antenna port on it.
@NeverDie said:
OK, I just noticed that it supports wi-fi direct (https://www.itead.cc/psf-a85.html), so perhaps that could accomplish it, since that doesn't require the lengthy wi-fi router dance.
No it doesn't. That's a claim that has been made by Espressif in the ESP8266 specs. But it has never been implemented...
Wearable ESP8266 (or 8285) is also a bold claim by iTead. The lowest power mode for radio transmit draws around 120mA, it's already over 50mA in receive mode. And if you use PWM, i2C (and I fail to see the use of wearable without them) or anything like that even when disabling the radio it will consume 15mA.
I have better hopes for the ESP32 as it's supposed to have some kind of very low power (for real) coprocessor to handle small tasks while the main cores will sleep. But it's still in development on the SDK side, and as seen with the "wifi direct" claim on the ESP8266 we should not take every promised feature from Espressif at face value ;)
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@NeverDie said:
OK, I just noticed that it supports wi-fi direct (https://www.itead.cc/psf-a85.html), so perhaps that could accomplish it, since that doesn't require the lengthy wi-fi router dance.
No it doesn't. That's a claim that has been made by Espressif in the ESP8266 specs. But it has never been implemented...
Wearable ESP8266 (or 8285) is also a bold claim by iTead. The lowest power mode for radio transmit draws around 120mA, it's already over 50mA in receive mode. And if you use PWM, i2C (and I fail to see the use of wearable without them) or anything like that even when disabling the radio it will consume 15mA.
I have better hopes for the ESP32 as it's supposed to have some kind of very low power (for real) coprocessor to handle small tasks while the main cores will sleep. But it's still in development on the SDK side, and as seen with the "wifi direct" claim on the ESP8266 we should not take every promised feature from Espressif at face value ;)
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Hmm.. at Mysensors Team we already have our ESP32 LORA board :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
This is a LIPO charger, LORA board i did for ESP32 evaluation. With a nice LDO, I added a neopixel, and prefer bigger tactile switch :) same width as Nano32 but 1cm longer, so one row available on each side for breadboarding. ESP32 is a nice little beast :)I have other stuff coming for esp32. i'll release ;)
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Hmm.. at Mysensors Team we already have our ESP32 LORA board :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
This is a LIPO charger, LORA board i did for ESP32 evaluation. With a nice LDO, I added a neopixel, and prefer bigger tactile switch :) same width as Nano32 but 1cm longer, so one row available on each side for breadboarding. ESP32 is a nice little beast :)I have other stuff coming for esp32. i'll release ;)
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imho, ultra low power is sub uA. Above, it's very low power :)
So, i'm not sure for ultra low power (depends also on strategy..), but very low power yes. I've not run any power consumption tests, focused on other parts. And the SDK is still not complete including the low power aspects. Some stuff is missing in ESP-IDF, but ready in Arduino, and vice versa. Docs are not complete yet, but looks good.
That said, ESP32 team is doing a great work! And Espressif is working on a revision of their sillicon die (there is an errata)... -
imho, ultra low power is sub uA. Above, it's very low power :)
So, i'm not sure for ultra low power (depends also on strategy..), but very low power yes. I've not run any power consumption tests, focused on other parts. And the SDK is still not complete including the low power aspects. Some stuff is missing in ESP-IDF, but ready in Arduino, and vice versa. Docs are not complete yet, but looks good.
That said, ESP32 team is doing a great work! And Espressif is working on a revision of their sillicon die (there is an errata)... -
lol, my very personal view, for battery operated devices:
- ultra low power : <= 1uA
- very low power : < 10uA
- low power : 100uA, not sure for this one :)
The same for the efficiency ;)
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Will the ESP32 be able to remember its state (including all variable values) just prior to sleeping, like an atmega328p can, or like the ESP8266 do you have to explicitly store the state in flash before sleeping and then restore it upon waking up?
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@scalz
Fair enough. It's just that it's hard to know, as Nca78 points out, what parts of their documentation can be believed, and what parts are pure fantasy.I notice Seeed Studio was selling the esp32 for $6.95, but it's presently backordered: https://www.seeedstudio.com/ESP-32S-Wifi-Bluetooth-Combo-Module-p-2706.html
Other seller are selling either the esp32 or the esp32 with an adapter board for 2-3x that amount. So, it's still early days until supply catches up with demand.
A few other things impress me about it:
- it comes with Bluetooth Low Eenrgy,
- 520kByte of SRAM.
- Built in hardware support for 10 capacitive touch channels.
- Apparently it comes with an RTC built-in
- 240Mhz processor clock frequency
- Two 10-bit DAC's. Quite a few 12-bit ADC's.
Sounds interesting!
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I notice Seeed Studio was selling the esp32 for $6.95, but it's presently backordered: https://www.seeedstudio.com/ESP-32S-Wifi-Bluetooth-Combo-Module-p-2706.html
Other seller are selling either the esp32 or the esp32 with an adapter board for 2-3x that amount. So, it's still early days until supply catches up with demand.
A few other things impress me about it:
- it comes with Bluetooth Low Eenrgy,
- 520kByte of SRAM.
- Built in hardware support for 10 capacitive touch channels.
- Apparently it comes with an RTC built-in
- 240Mhz processor clock frequency
- Two 10-bit DAC's. Quite a few 12-bit ADC's.
Sounds interesting!
Which of the esp32 boards is the best one to buy? What I like about the Wemos board for the ESP8266 is that I can download a sketch without having to press any buttons on the board itself. Is there an esp32 board that works like that also?
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yeah, it has nice specs ;)
which board to order ? Mine :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
I'm kidding, I don't really have idea on this. I made mine..and am waiting for different pcb variant now :)But I firstly ordered a Nano32 which I like. You can have pinheader on each side of the board when breadboarding. You can't with the official Espressif board which is too large.
There is lot of esp32 board released. But all have the first ic revision of course. -
yeah, it has nice specs ;)
which board to order ? Mine :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
I'm kidding, I don't really have idea on this. I made mine..and am waiting for different pcb variant now :)But I firstly ordered a Nano32 which I like. You can have pinheader on each side of the board when breadboarding. You can't with the official Espressif board which is too large.
There is lot of esp32 board released. But all have the first ic revision of course.@scalz said:
yeah, it has nice specs ;)
which board to order ? Mine :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
I'm kidding, I don't really have idea on this. I made mine..and am waiting for different pcb variant now :)But I firstly ordered a Nano32 which I like. You can have pinheader on each side of the board when breadboarding. You can't with the official Espressif board which is too large.
There is lot of esp32 board released. But all have the first ic revision of course.Uh, "first ic revision"? I haven't followed esp32 at all, obviously. Was there later a second ic revision? i.e. are all the boards currently out there saddled with obsolete ic's?
