Consumption

Power control

The power of the Events board is drawn from the Waspmote 3.3 V line and is controlled by the solid state switch which is accessed through the 2x11 connector, defined as SENS_3V3_PW in the application. From this switch it is therefore possible to completely activate or deactivate the Events board power (see Waspmote manual for more details about the switches to manage the mote's power and the appropriate section in the WaspmotePWR API manual's library for more information on its handling). This means that, independently of the board's internal mechanisms, Waspmote will decide at any moment if the board is on or off.

Inside the board itself, the OR logic gate, the shift register remain powered at all times without possible disconnection by the user provided that the board is active. However, the consumption of these components is only up to 50 μA.

Each sensor has its own power consumption and it also depends on the sensor state, so it would have to be taken into account o estimate the overall power consumption.

Low consumption mode

The Waspmote Events board has been designed to have the least consumption possible. For this, the only recommendations which the user must try to follow are the following:

• Use the Waspmote low consumption modes One of the main advantages of Waspmote, its efficient energy management, is especially used in this board, which allows the mote to be placed in one of the low consumption modes at the expense of the appearance of an event triggering an interruption which wakes it in order to respond to the event in the way it has been programmed and returning to the low consumption mode (consult the Waspmote manual and the WaspmotePWR library for more information on the mote's energy management).

• Care of new sensors Libelium has chosen a series of sensors which are outstanding thanks to their high functionality and low consumption in active mode. Make sure that the sensors that are installed in this board maintain minimum consumption in this status, since they are thought to be always operating and wake Waspmote when any event occurs.