WRL-20168 power consumption if EN=low.

Development Boards ESP32
1

Hey guys,

comparing schematics of boards

WRL-17743

and

WRL-20168

I find first has R8=100k resistor, latter R8=10k.

I want to use a switch to turn off the device completely when powered from battery.

I would like to have the battery permanently connected for example to load it if USB is plugged in automatically without need to switch on the battery power.

So I thought using the EN-pin, but current is a bit high to use it that way:

If I pull down the EN-pin next to R8, this would result in a current flow of roughly

WRL-17743 → I=U/R=5V/10k=0,5mA

WRL-20168 → I=5V/100k=0,05mA

First is quite much and a battery of 500mAh would discharge in ~41days, where with the 100k resistor it would last more than a year.

Why did that change? Was it intentional? How would I connect a battery to the system permanently, load it, monitor it and not discharge in about a month.

Maybe the board can be improved in that regard…

Best,

Michael

2

Design/supply constraints during covid made it where we needed to change which power regulator was used. You could try either using the deep sleep mode and rigging something up like you’ve mentioned, or use something like https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13777 externally

3

I totally understand the shortages. But the question is about using 10k resistor instead 100k. The enable function is useless if battery powered with 10k resistor.

4

I couldn’t say…you could file an issue on the hardware repo to ask https://github.com/sparkfun/ESP32-S2_Thing_Plus/issues