Possible to power off WINC1500?

Hardware Arduino Zero
1

I am using SAMD21 + WINC1500. As soon as I start I put both to sleep. During sleep, SAMD21 consumes 0.4mA and WINC1500 consumes 0. Upon interrupt wake-up, I start Wifi using WiFi101 library, transmit and again put both to sleep. During sleep, SAMD21 consumes 0.4mA and WINC1500 consumes 12mA. That is a lot of power! Is there a way to completely shut down the power to the WINC1500 instead of putting it to sleep? Please reply asap.

2

Can't believe why the Arduino Zero M0 would not have a way to power down the WINC1500 when required.

3

Hi @adhaji,

There are some new API's to put the WINC1500 in low power mode or off.

See: WiFi101 - Arduino Reference

WiFi.end(), WiFi.lowPowerMode(), WiFi.maxLowPowerMode().

4

Thanks for that. But I have all that already. Despite having all these three lines, WINC15000 still draws 12mA in DEEP SLEEP mode.

WiFi.maxLowPowerMode();
WiFi.disconnect();
WiFi.end();

Would have been nice if it was zero amps like it was before I did the first WiFi.begin(ssid, pass);

I even tried these, but then the next time wifi would not connect.
m2m_wifi_deinit(NULL);
nm_bsp_deinit();

Any other suggestions?

5

Hi @adhaji,

I forgot that the changes to WiFi.end() haven't been released to the library manager. Previously, it did not power off the board.

Can you please try again, but using the version from the Github master branch: GitHub - arduino-libraries/WiFi101: Wifi library for the Arduino WiFi 101 Shield