Adafruit Feather Sense Power consumption

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NorwegianRocketMan
 
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Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2023 8:57 am

Adafruit Feather Sense Power consumption

Post by NorwegianRocketMan »

Hi!

This might be an uninformed and wierd question, I have little background in electronics!

What would be the typical power consumption of the Adafruit Feather Sense board? I guess this is highly dependent on how many sensors you use and how frequently, but is it possible to give a ballpark estimate? (Or min/max-values?) Also: What is a realistic maximum mW the board can deliver to the rest of the circuit?

Some background information:
My students are working on a project that involves a motor controller (Adafruit TB6612), SD-card and a radio-chip (Adafruit RFM96). I am wondering how much current this hole setup draws, and if the single 3.7 V battery is up to the task. (The motor controller has its own external battery supply for the motors it drives.) They have managed to fry two Feather Sense board, that might be due to some exposed wiring that has come into contact with each other, but I want to understand if somehow we are exceeding some power consumption limit or something.

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Adafruit Feather Sense Power consumption

Post by mikeysklar »

The Feather Sense will consume ~7mA in idle mode. Depending on how much BLE traffic and sensor use that can be quite a bit higher.

The RFM96 is anywhere between 50mA - 150mA while actively transmitting / 30mA when listening.

A USB voltage meter is a simple way to determine more realistic numbers based on your workload.

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NorwegianRocketMan
 
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Re: Adafruit Feather Sense Power consumption

Post by NorwegianRocketMan »

Thanks! Will buy that USB-device for sure!

An update on the project:

We are now experiencing that the red status light on the Feather Sense (D13) is blinking when the TB6612 has been activated. (This happens regardless if the other components are connected or not.) Is this a sign that the microcontroller is about to get overloaded somehow? I have searched the documentation for D13 led indicator, but it only says it is a status indicator for the bootloader. The motors are running as expected while the blinking is happening. Due to the two afforementioned fried Feather Senses, I want to be carefull here.

Code:

Code: Select all

import board
import digitalio
import pwmio
from adafruit_motor import motor
from time import sleep

D9=pwmio.PWMOut(board.D9,frequency=50)

D10=pwmio.PWMOut(board.D10,frequency=50)

D12=pwmio.PWMOut(board.D12,frequency=50) # AIN2

D13=pwmio.PWMOut(board.D13,frequency=50) # AIN1

D11=digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D11) # STBY
D11.direction=digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT
D11.value=False

DCmotor=motor.DCMotor(D12,D13)
Actuator=motor.DCMotor(D9,D10)

while True:
    Actuator.throttle=1
    
    DCmotor.throttle=1
    sleep(1)
    DCmotor.throttle=-1
    sleep(1)
    
    Actuator.throttle=-1
    
    sleep(2)
Wiring:

PWMA = to feather sense 3v
PWMB = to feather sense 3v
AIN1/2/STDBY/BIN1/2= D9-13 (in that order)
GND and VCC = to feather gnd and 3v.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Adafruit Feather Sense Power consumption

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Please post some photos showing how everything is connected. Also some specifications for the motors you are using.

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NorwegianRocketMan
 
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Re: Adafruit Feather Sense Power consumption

Post by NorwegianRocketMan »

Here is a picture of the circuitry. The actuator is a L-12-10-50-6-S The DC motor is not in for this picture, but the red light still blinks (in fact, it still blinks even if I disconnect all the motors from the controller).
Attachments
Uten navn.jpg
Uten navn.jpg (303.76 KiB) Viewed 2644 times

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Adafruit Feather Sense Power consumption

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Looks like you are using pin 13 as one of the control pins for your motors. Like most Arduino compatible processor boards, pin 13 is attached to an indicator LED. There is no harm in using it for motor control - if you don't mind the flashing light.

https://learn.adafruit.com/assets/89187
Attachments
Feather Indicators.png
Feather Indicators.png (23.08 KiB) Viewed 2639 times

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