ESP8266 Community Forum

- Thu Feb 09, 2017 3:23 am #62294 Used a similar approach for remote sensors deployment, with a more classic hardware RTC implementation, and have nothing to complain about, no glitches, no nothing, working like a charm.

I know that they are a lot of fans of the deep sleep functionality of the ESP but from my personal experience for a long time running/low power consumtion project this is one of the best approaches.

A related ESP8266 Forum thread where you can see different implementations:
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=5747&start=40

ESP8266 MPDMv4 AC MAINS Dimmer Home: http://esp8266-projects.com/2016/04/mpdmv4-mains-dimmerswitch-html/
Available on Tindie: https://www.tindie.com/products/nEXT_EVO1/universal-ac-mains-dimmer-mpdmv41/

- Thu Feb 09, 2017 3:52 am #62295 if one has to power sensors that have no deepsleep or has to use ldo that brings on/off capability as sideeffect or has to very precise timing or even has to count every single nA, then yes, use external means.

But introducing additional parts "just for fun" (it is working reliable and extremly low power with internal means) is not good practise except for "proof of concept", especially when on the other hand cutting corners in a way that leaves parasitic current pathes and powers chips outside specs ...

- Sun Feb 19, 2017 3:39 pm #62779 Bonjour fairesoimême

I began in same way (small MSP430 did the job done in your case by TPL5111)
Finally I'm happy with deepsleep (sessions <1s) + no regulator (3.2V LIFePo4), autonomy : more than 6 months, sending DS18B20 data (10 bits mode) to ThingSpeak or local MQTT broker.
Happy to discover TPL5111 !!! .... but in my case: too lazy to to add some SOT23 components and add get more months !!

- Thu Apr 13, 2017 4:19 pm #64928 For those who wish to experiment without designing a PCB or hand soldering surface mount components, Low Power Lab (the Moteino company) and Adafruit sell TPL5110 breakout boards.

https://lowpowerlab.com/shop/product/147
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3435