ePulse low power ESP32 devboard.

[hamster_nz]

I just received my epulse ESP32 board order. It was delayed due to COVID19, but made it to NZ quicker than expected.

I quickly hooked up a PSU and a few meters to measure the power usage.

* 27.4 mA with the CPU running (no Wifi running)

* 23.5uA when the CPU is in deep sleep (with a timer running for wakeup).

In the pictures the uA is on the meter in the center, the mA on the right.

That is pretty good for a US$16.90 ESP32 board. The 3V3 LDO they are using is the TS9013SCW - might have to get some!

https://thingpulse.com/product/epulse-low-power-esp32-development-board/

PS. The uA meter has a piss-poor shunt over it until the board goes into deep sleep, hence the 300nA reading when measuring the mA.

EDIT: Correct SI unit prefix error... Opps!

[hamster_nz]

* 23.5nA when the CPU is in deep sleep (with a timer running for wakeup).

I take that is uA, not nA.

The LDO draws 15uA typical from DS.

BTW as a side topic, I generally refrain from CP2104-based boards, for the same reason why I refrain from FT232R-based boards.

The chance you get genuine ones from China without directly from an authorized distributor nor paying DigiKey price is near zero.

The new CP2102N seems to be less faked, particularly the new 3mm*3mm package (unfortunately, no DTR, so boot mode and reset has to be manipulated using GPIo through Silabs's custom black box library).

Home grown chips like CH340 also seem to be less faked, but they are not available in QFN. The MSOP10 package looks small, but it doesn't have DTR either.

Opps. Yes.... I've corrected the SI prefix error in the original post - isolation induced brain fade, I guess.

I like the CH340 too, and will never buy any low-cost products with FTDI chips - it is just too risky.