XIAO MG24 vs nRF54L15 for low-power Matter/Zigbee actuator?

Products & Technology XIAO
2

Hi there,

So, You’re on the right track – both XIAO MG24 and XIAO nRF54L15 are absolutely capable of being a battery-powered valve actuator for Thread/Matter or Zigbee. The key is understanding how “wake on message” really works in these stacks.

How I see it in the field.

1. Hardware capability (short answer: yes)

  • XIAO MG24 (EFR32MG24)
    • Native support for Matter over Thread, Zigbee and BLE. Seeed Studio+1
    • Designed specifically for battery-powered Matter devices – it’s basically the textbook example for this use case. Seeed Studio+1
    • Real measurements from the Seeed forum:
      • ~60 µA in “light sleep”
      • ~1.9 µA in “deep sleep” with on-board peripherals disabled. Seeed Studio Forum
  • XIAO nRF54L15

So purely on silicon + board design: yes, both are capable of <100 µA average, as long as the application is designed correctly.

2. How “wake on message” actually works (Thread/Matter/Zigbee reality)

There is no true “hardware RF interrupt from any random packet while you’re at 1–2 µA”.
All the common stacks (Thread, Matter, Zigbee) use some form of Sleepy End Device (SED):

  • The node sleeps with the radio off most of the time.
  • A parent router buffers messages for it.
  • The sleepy node wakes up periodically, turns the radio on briefly, sends a poll (“anything for me?”), receives pending messages, and goes back to sleep.

For Thread/Matter this is standardized: SED / synchronized SED in Nordic’s and Silabs’ docs. Silicon Labs Docs+2docs.nordicsemi.com+2

So the trade-off is:

  • Longer poll interval → lower average current, but more latency (e.g. valve might react 1–5 s after the command).
  • Shorter poll interval → snappier control, but higher average current.

Trying to literally wake :face_with_peeking_eye: “on RF message edge” means running the receiver most of the time → mA range, not µA.

For a water valve, a 500 ms – 2 s response is usually acceptable, and that’s well within what a SED can do at <100 µA average if tuned right.

3. Is <100 µA idle feasible for a valve actuator?

Yes, with the right relay/valve choice and SED settings:

  1. Use a latching relay or motorized ball valve
  • Coil only energized during open/close, not held continuously.
  • Idle state current then drops back to just the MCU + radio (tens of µA average, or single-digit µA if polls are rare).
  1. Configure the node as a Thread / Zigbee Sleepy End Device:
  • MG24: Silabs has SED and ICD (Intermittently Connected Device) power-optimized profiles; example measurements for door lock–class devices hit ~10–20 µA average with tuned parameters and slow polling. Silicon Labs Docs+2community.silabs.com+2
  • nRF54L15: Nordic has docs specifically on low-power Matter over Thread configuration and SED behavior; they’re targeting multi-year battery life for similar devices. Nordic DevZone+1
  1. Choose a poll interval that matches your battery goal:
  • Example: poll every 1–2 seconds → snappy valve reaction, still usually under your <100 µA average target if everything else is trimmed (LEDs off, debug off, no extra sensors burning current).
  • If you want multi-year battery life, you can push poll intervals out further (seconds to tens of seconds) and accept more latency.

So yes: a sleepy end-device that wakes on buffered messages and toggles a latching relay is a very standard pattern and absolutely feasible.

Also I would add ,

  • MG24: Silabs SDK + Simplicity Studio → easier out-of-the-box for Matter/Zigbee today.
  • nRF54L15: nRF Connect SDK → super strong toolchain, slightly steeper learning curve, excellent for low-power and long-term maintainability.

Choose your Path and GO!

HTH
GL :slight_smile: PJ :v: