Measure power consumption with nRF Power Profiler 2 and ESP32-C3

Updated on 21 March 2024
dev board nRF Power Profiler 2
features power consumption current nrf profiler kit esp32-c3 PPK2 ppk2 measurement instrument
This tutorial is more than 6 months old. If the steps below do not work, then please check the latest versions and the documentations of the individual tools used.

Before starting

Dependancies

Ensure the following dependancies are downloaded and available:

Pre-requisites

Try these simpler or similar examples:
  1. External wakeup with Arduino on ESP32-C3

Buy the components

  1. nRF Power Profiler 2
  2. ESP32-C3-DevKitM-1

Prototype

A photo of the actual setup.

Measure power consumption with nRF Power Profiler 2 and ESP32-C3 prototype

Schematic

Wire up the hardware accordingly

Measure power consumption with nRF Power Profiler 2 and ESP32-C3 schematic

Serial console

Serial output from the firmware.

Measure power consumption with nRF Power Profiler 2 and ESP32-C3 serial console

Description

  1. Use the External wakeup with Arduino on ESP32-C3 tutorial to prepare the sample code.
  2. Connect the ESP32-C3-DevKitM-1 to the nRF Power Profiler 2 with Vout to 5V and GND pins. Ensure the device is only powered from the nRF Power Profiler 2.
  3. Connect the nRF Power Profiler 2 to your computer using the USB cable via the USB DATA/POWER.
  4. Open the nRF Connect for Desktop application.
  5. Click OPEN for the Power Profiler app.
  6. Select PPK2 from the list of devices on top left-hand corner.
  7. Select the parameters for the measurement in the sidebar on the left-hand side:
    1. Power supply mode to Source meter
    2. Set the Supply Voltage to 5000mV
    3. Enable power output
    4. Set samples per second E.g. 10
    5. Select the sample time E.g. 20s
    6. Click on the Start button to start the measurement

  8. Press the push button to wake up the ESP32-C3 to blink and then go to deep sleep.
  9. Select the portion of the graph with SHIFT to display the average current and other values.
  10. Calculate average battery life using the average current and battery capacity.

References

  1. Getting started with nRF Power Profiler ii