Power consumption of ESP32 maintaining WiFi connection using automatic light sleep
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2020 2:32 am
I would like to listen to new WiFi messages on ESP32 while keeping the power consumption as low as possible. I've done a Google search, and from these previous posts (1. https://www.esp32.com/viewtopic.php?t=11481 2. https://www.esp32.com/viewtopic.php?t=8070 3. viewtopic.php?t=15281), enabling automatic light sleep feature together with modem sleep seems to be the best that I can do. The lowest current consumption when the WiFi AP's DTIM=3 is said to be about 3.5mA without reference in post 1 and 3 and to be 7.54mA with actual measurements in post 2 (weirdly posted by the same user @ESP_igrr), but there's nothing about this value in ESP32's datasheet. Also, the ESP8266's datasheet https://www.espressif.com/sites/default ... eet_en.pdf do have this value, which is around 0.9mA, and I'm surprised at that since ESP32 is a newer product and I expect it to have better power saving support. Therefore, I wonder if there is any official data about the average current draw of ESP32 (either single core or dual core version is fine) when automatic light sleep and modem sleep feature is turned on and WiFi is connected.
By the way, I have some side questions. First, do I need to configure any wake-up sources in addition to enabling auto light sleep if I want to use the WiFi powersave mode with auto light sleep? In the sleep mode reference (https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp ... modes.html) none of the wakeup sources seems to be related to WiFi... Second, will the WiFi library's functions be limited if auto light sleep and modem sleep features are enabled? For example, can I still listen on a socket to wait for WiFi traffic?
By the way, I have some side questions. First, do I need to configure any wake-up sources in addition to enabling auto light sleep if I want to use the WiFi powersave mode with auto light sleep? In the sleep mode reference (https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp ... modes.html) none of the wakeup sources seems to be related to WiFi... Second, will the WiFi library's functions be limited if auto light sleep and modem sleep features are enabled? For example, can I still listen on a socket to wait for WiFi traffic?