Hi, I'm preparing a solar setup with the NEO. As you may know, any solar powered project needs a detailed power budget... and I've been unable to find power consumption data for the NEO. In particular, I'll power an NEO extended with a 12V source. The neo will be reading gpios 50 times/second and reacting when something happens. I've read that we can rely in the arduino for this task, leaving the linux machine in deep sleep. What is the power consumption when working only with the arduino? Is there any info out there on how to sleep the rest of the board? I am interested in the power consumption when using wifi as client. this will only happen in short bursts of 5 - 10 seconds, but everthing adds.
I can't vouch for any official figures, however I did some tests while exploring options for battery powering the Neo from a 5v source. Unfortunately in my opinion the Neo seems to be power hungry even though the imx6sx should be able to consume very little power in deep sleep mode. Below are my figures with a 5v source : 1. An idle kernel (no ethernet/wifi or M4) approximately 480mA 2. An optimized idle kernel (no ethernet/wifi or M4) approximately 220mA 3. optimized kernel in deep sleep (no M4) approximately 50mA. Ideally would have like to see < 5mA 4. optimized kernel in deep sleep with M4 running (Freetos blinking LED app) 150mA . The A9 has to keep some clocks running for the M4 to function hence the increase in power. The figures are quite high for just having the M4 running, in comparison I have TI board hosting a low power cortex M4 which consumes 1 or 2 mA when running. The optimized kernel was a strip down kernel to disable unused peripherals.
thanks very much for your answer! That information is highly appreciated. The numbers, indeed, are not what I expected Any comment from the udooers out there about how to reduce power needs?
