We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would like advice

Re:We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would lik... by Uhrheber on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @03:06AM (#22543745)

I can see why you're using these boards, but the ESP32 is an incredibly power hungry device. For battery/solar power it's not the best choice.

For devices in the field I'd use one of the many available low power ARM controllers.

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Re:We're making an open-source $30 GPS/mesh radio, would lik... by punkgeek on Thursday March 12, 2020 @01:22AM (#22554025)

we are careful to keep the esp clock-gated almost all the time (esp calls this light-sleep), in that mode the power draw of the ESP is on 1.5mA. When the radio (or button press) receives a packet it wakes the main CPU, which then services everything (turning on bluetooth as needed) and then goes back to sleep. If you are curious for more details we have a power consumptions spreadsheet in our docs.

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