Hi, this is my first post.
I've been tinkering with a Fio/XBee combo for measuring the environment of my beehives. I've been successfully collecting test data in my basement using a few sensors. So far so good.
The next step is to lower the power consumption so it can be put outside with a solar charger. According to my meter my setup is drawing around 60mA. I first tried following these instructions
http://semifluid.com/2012/09/07/arduino-fio-low-power-setup/But when the Fio is allegedly in sleep mode it's still drawing about 53mA. After that didn't work I tried this very minimal code but the power consumption is the same.
#include <avr/sleep.h>
void setup ()
{
set_sleep_mode (SLEEP_MODE_PWR_DOWN);
sleep_enable();
sleep_cpu ();
} // end of setup
void loop () { }
I'm measuring the current by placing my meter in series with the power line coming from the battery. It's a radio shack meter and I've got the dial set to the 32/320 mA setting.
I would appreciate any tips to troubleshoot this. I feel like I've exhausted google for alternatives.