Heltec V2.1 FW 1.2.53 not going into sleep mode

Support
1

FW 1.2.52 goes into sleep mode okay using ~ 2.7mA however the Battery read out is not correct - reading low.
FW 1.2.53 fixes the battery reading however the unit is not going to sleep.

  • Correction for wrong battery display on tlora_v2_1_16 board by @costonisp in #1120

With the display on I am seeing ~ 53 mA .The display does turn off ~ 47mA but then the Bluetooth Light keeps flashing and the unit will not go to sleep after 300 seconds
Any one else having this issue?

Thanks

2

is_power_saving was introduced in FW 1.2.52:

Disable light-sleep (aka bluetooth sleep) as the default behavior by @mc-hamster in #1075

check for that.

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3

For version 1.49 I am reading about 14 mA in sleep mode.
The Android app does have the option - isAlwaysPowered which I have still unchecked.
So if version 1.2.52 goes to sleep and only consumes 2.7mA in sleep mode and 1.2.53 won’t sleep then something else was changed accidentally?

Thanks

4

1.2.52 and forward does not do the “device is connected but sleeping” thing in android anymore. Are you sure you are using the right version of the heltec firmware for you battery pins?

5

sleep is complex. .53 should not light sleep unless you enable is_power_saving. we need to know that first.

you can check either via CLI with meshtastic --info or meshtastic --get is_power_saving or over the advanced settings menu in android app 1.2.54+

otherwise, it is working as intended.

6

also, if you are interested in better understanding what the device is doing under the hood, consider capturing the serial log via USB cable. this can be easily done installing VSCode and platformio plugin, but there are many options, even putty works.

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7

Yes - I have the Heltec V2.1(with the diagonal cap).
I just upgraded my Android App from 1.2.52 to 1.2.55.
Under advanced settings I tried the slider both ways for the device sleep period of 300 in seconds.
For FW 1.2.52 it goes to sleep. For 1.2.53 the screen turns off after 1 minute but then it never goes to sleep.

I just got another board from Amazon - I am going to try it tonight - I did have a board in the past that the divider for the battery was off.

Thanks

8

Why do you want it to sleep?

9

To conserve battery power - I am reading though this now…

Thanks

10

The defaults in firmware 1.2.52 and beyond are the best experience, they will override previous settings. You don’t want to add back that problematic sleep behavior

11

Sounds good - I will use 1.2.53 going forward.
Thanks for the advice.

12

I’m confused… I’m seeing a much higher power drain on portable, battery-powered T-Beams since 1.2.52 (default settings), hence I’m reluctant to upgrade remote, solar-powered nodes whose power budget relies on sleep mode.

I didn’t notice a “problematic sleep behavior” before 1.2.52, so I’m a bit concerned.

13

The problematic “the device is connected but sleeping” functionality has been removed as default, there is no BLE sleep state the radio is off and messaging fails to work until the button on the device is pressed. You can turn it back on with is_power_saving in configuration, but remote nodes should be set as routers with BLE off, so not sure how this would have impacted any router nodes.

14
15

Oh I see, I must have misunderstood! Yes, this change makes sense.
I’ll investigate the higher-than-before battery drain I’m experiencing to see whether it’s in line with that.

Cheers

16

After some days of testing, I’m happy to report a massive improvement in usability due to the Bluetooth sleep off by default! Much much better now, cheers!

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17

If you know of any usability issues, we take those seriously. Bring them up if you hear of them :slight_smile:

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