Xiao ESP32S3 powersaving does not work

[pki791]

Hi.
I made several tests with the Xiao ESP32S3+Wio. The current firmware 1.12 and the nightly build both permanently take about 60mA in idle. Powersaving was on and checked, clock synced. Did serveral tried and waited about 10 mintes. The powersaving firmware however (v11.2.3) however dropped the current draw to 7.5mA after promised 2 minutes. After recieving or sending a packet the current was 60mA for a short time and dropped quicky to 7.5mA.

About the OTA, "start ota" command is accepted and repeats the url, but the wifi never starts, powersaving can be on or off, makes no difference. My device restarted at time of staring OTA due to supply current limiting.

Also battery voltage is shows 0.0v.

I tested also the 1.12 with Heltec WP v1.2 which seems to use same ESP32S3 variant, here the powersaving is working as expected (ca. 11mA @3.7V)

I understand now little bit more, the powersaving is not yet availible for this device as #1266

Also i added:

  -D PIN_VBAT_READ=D3 ; test battery voltage

to have battery voltage reading after ading divider to D3 (which is near the battery pins, so easy to solder).

[IoTThinks]

Hi @pki791,

1. The current PowerSaving in MeshCore v1.12.0 only supports ESP32-based boards with RTC-DIO1.
   Sadly, Xiao ESP32 is not supported yet in this MeshCore v1.12.0.

This PR will support Xiao ESP32. However, it is still a pending PR.
#1353

Next week, I will merge PowerSaving to MeshCore v1.12.0 in my fork.
Thanks a lot.

2. OTA is not related.
   But in my experience, if your Xiao is in a sealed box , WiFi from Xiao may have a hard time to escape the box to reach your phone.
   Is your Xiao ESP32 in a box now?
   If yes, you may unbox it or get near to the box.

[pki791]

@IoTThinks thank You for Your answer.

I did small test and compiled the main from meshcore with the changes:

  -D PIN_VBAT_READ=D3 ; test battery voltage
  -D P_LORA_DIO_1=D0  ; was 39

Also i bridged the DIO_1 to D0 for test, i can confirm in that way OTA and powersaving works correctly.

I am pretty sure (tested multiple times) the current v1.12 release and the nightly build did not provide a working OTA for this Xiao/S3+Wio target. It confirms via message in CLI, but wifi never starts, i can see that also on the currect consumption. I will make one more test later today to confirm how it works with the last "main" branch.

I can also make tests if You need as i have that board on hand actually.

[IoTThinks]

@pki791 Wow, I thought GPIO39 is non RTC pin and Xiao S3 will not support the old PowerSaving in MeshCore v1.12.0.

My Xiao S3 is still on the way to me.

If doing start ota, the sleep or PowerSaving will be blocked and ota should start.
The power consumption should be back high as normal.

Else there is something not right with OTA.

Btw, have you performed OTA successfully before with Xiao S3?

[pki791]

@IoTThinks
39 is non RTC, so i changed in the code to D0 and bridged DIO_1 to D0 (its straight vertical pin to pin connection, extreme easy).

I check now all versions against OTA once again. I have perfomed the OTA on this board, but not before 1.12 as i started with 1.12.

I can not reproduce the OTA not starting problem, but i have an idea, probably i had the current limit too low on my bench PSU during that test which caused a reboot at the time of starting OTA becuase there is a current spike to over 200mA when starting OTA. So probaly nothing with the firmware. I tried same device, same firmware files, cleared flash and old config, all OTA stuff works now, so sorry for confusing.

[IoTThinks]

39 is non RTC, so i changed in the code to D0 and bridged DIO_1 to D0 (its straight vertical pin to pin connection, extreme easy).

I see. Now I understand.
Hope the new PR will come to support Xiao S3, C3, C6 and NRF52 for default wiring.

I can not reproduce the OTA not starting problem

Glad the OTA works, yes. OTA needs WiFi and power up to 200mA sometimes.

[pki791]

@IoTThinks How You managed to get powersaving to work without DIO_1 to be at RTC_GPIO?

[IoTThinks]

@pki791 I need to use GPIO Wakeup instead of ext1 or ext0 wakeup.
GPIO Wakeup works for all esp32 but it is tricker as ESP32 needs some trick to wakeup on HIGH DIO1 and process LoRa packet on HIGH DIO1 at the same GPIO.

https://github.com/meshcore-dev/MeshCore/pull/1353/changes#diff-bf2a85f9de86622aa1706e48181c52038e533cae13e3f52f5cd2a2a063b61dc8

[pki791]

@IoTThinks ok, all clear. For testing i merged pr1353 into main v1.12. I can confirm powersaving works. 7.3mA @ 3.7V

[IoTThinks]

@IoTThinks ok, all clear. For testing i merged pr1353 into main v1.12. I can confirm powersaving works. 7.3mA @ 3.7V

Yah, I will merge PowerSaving pr1353 into main v1.12 in my fork.
This is to allow friends to test comprehensive before merge to official MeshCore.
So far ok.

[IoTThinks]

So no more issue. :)