low power mode differences between Moteino R4 and Moteino Trace antenna

[xavier]

Has anyone seen a consumption difference between Moteino R4 and Moteino Trace antenna when using the low power library?

I have a compost sensor (thermistor) and when it's plugged in the moteino R4 I get around 300uAmp but when connected on the Trace antenna moteino I can't seem to go lower than 12mAmp

The code is pretty straightforward and it's the same on. both nodes:

Code Select Expand

   radio.sleep();
  flash.sleep(); 
  //439 for 1 hour? SLeep_*S is 8192ms
  for (i = 0; i< j; i++)
     LowPower.powerDown(SLEEP_8S, ADC_OFF, BOD_OFF);
  sendCurrentThermistorTemp();

Any idea?  thanks!

Edit1: I just tried with another moteino R4 and I get 3.7mAmp - - I'm measuring using power coming from the ftdi  cable to a small voltmeter and then to the moteino... maybe my setup for measuring is not correct - will spend more time double checking my connections..

[Felix]

I shared 2 DeepSleep examples.
With nothing attached that uses more power you should get around 6uA without any effort.
There are no circuit differences between the regular Moteino and the trace-antenna-Moteino.

[xavier]

thanks for the reply Felix - not sure what is going on but I get 6uA on the Moteino R4 RFM69W but the trace RFM69HW and the other moteino R4 RFM69HW gets 10mAmp. Same code, same connections. Note that the moteino trace suffered a little (humidity and spraying w the neverWet stuff) - I suppose if there was a short nothing would work no?
Any idea what situations would generate this outcome? I'll try to find another moteino...

PS: I did try the examples and got 10mAmp as well

[Felix]

Like I said, the only difference is the onboard antenna. If there is a FLASH MEM ensure you put that to sleep as well, although the deepsleep examples do that optionally for you using this:

Code Select Expand

#define WITH_SPIFLASH           //comment this line out if you don't have the FLASH-MEM chip on your Moteino