Managing Power on projects post development?

Community
#1

As I have said in previous posts; I am new to this domain.

Clearly beyond the lack of updating drivers here and there the most difficult issue I have come up against is power. Perhaps difficult is the wrong word, inconvenient or expensive maybe more suitable terms.

Now on the dev side, its a piece of cake; I have three USB C ports on my laptop and can power three ESP32C3 concurrently. But the long term on this is to build something useful, so having to plug it into my laptop isn’t realistic.

So my question is how do you power your projects in the deployment phase? I wrote a simple app that does nothing more than display the time the other days, but on a battery, it only ran for 7 hours.

Do people simply run things on USB chargers? old laptops?

#2

Hi there,
AS you have discovered the the software is key and the libraries are dependent. The power efficiency is a delicate balance between features, function and battery capacity.
SYstem on Sleep on the Nrf52 series for example can have a dramatic effect on battery life in terms on 100x micro amps vs milliamps. Using the online battery calculator,
HERE

I would make a recommend to look over the Power Nija’s :ninja: thread @msfujino on “system on sleep” he has done extensive research and documentation and posted his excellent findings. Saved me on my PCB’s power requirements, battery size and run time.
We like to use the " PPK-II " from Nordic Semi works very well makes power a non issue in system designs on Battery. It doesn’t stop there though, techniques in the code also can improve both efficiency and performance. The serial port for example just on and hanging out will cost you, in code the “while Serial " statement has cost many hair loss and why doesn’t my code work when unplugged?” syndrom LOL.
Post your code please and I’ll try it with some of the aforementioned considerations in mind. and I will post what I find.
HTH
GL :slight_smile: PJ :v:

Now , your getting into the real meat and potatoes of the MCU world for wearables, where low power and long battery life converge with performance and reliability. WELCOME :smile: :vulcan_salute:

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