ESP8266 Community Forum

Hello,

I have several analog sensors (rain, light intensity, distance, ...) that require 5V.
For my projects I prefer battery power with 3.3V and very low deep-sleep current consumption for long lasting battery packs.

If I need 5V I have to use a DC-DC converter.
Such a converter raises my deep-sleep consumption from 0.2uA up to 1mA, this reduces the lifetime a lot.

Is there a best-practice how to handle these analog sensors ?

BR
Gawan

You can use a P-Chan MOSFET to cut their 5V supply during deep-sleep, the gate of this MOSFET would have a pullup and controlled by a N-Chan MOSFET which is controlled by a GPIO along with a pulldown.

I think the problem is not the sensor, but the converter.
I have 1-2mA during deep-sleep even if I disconnect the sensor

Gawan wrote:I think the problem is not the sensor, but the converter.
I have 1-2mA during deep-sleep even if I disconnect the sensor

That's why you should disconnect the entire DC-DC converter, not just the sensor. Many DC-DC converters already have a shutdown pin, so you may not even need to use a mosfet.
For low current sensors, you may also consider using a charge pump (e.g. MAX619) instead of a switch mode boost converter.