I started playing around with the Heltec Wireless Stick last week and have so far been using it with some 1100mAh batteries. I noticed the battery life is pretty bad so I decided to take some current measurements last night. I was quite surprised to see it pulling about 100mA on average. Without even having a GPS on it. For comparison just turning off the GPS on a T-Beam gets an average current draw of around 50mA.
I am wondering if the 100mA current is about what is expected for this device? I realize this one has the screen on it vs the Lite version that doesn’t. But I don’t think the screen just being there (not even displaying anything) is what is accounting for the extra 50mA or so.
Is the current about the same on the Lite version of the Wireless Stick?
Edit: I forgot to mention the quirk with this board. I am sure I’m not the first to find it. Just more less listing it here so anyone else considering buying them is aware of it.
If you power the board with a battery. When the battery eventually dies and you plug the unit in to charge it it does not reboot. I find that I have to remove the battery then plug in the USB to power it up and then reconnect the battery while it is powered.