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Cool project! Just one thing: It says "ultra low" power. But ultra low is not necessarily the same as battery powered, which itself doesn't necessarily mean co

Cool project! Just one thing: It says "ultra low" power. But ultra low is not necessarily the same as battery powered, which itself doesn't necessarily mean coin-cell battery powered. My experience with wifi modules I've built so far has been, they've all been "low" but not usually battery powerable. I wish the README provides more info whether it's suitable for battery-powered operation, and if so how which.

surajrmal 3mo ago
Nothing with WiFi will ever be coin cell battery powered. But that doesn't mean it couldn't be battery powered for a year or longer with bigger batteries. Otherwise you'll need a different radio technology.
- happyopossum 3mo ago
  > Nothing with WiFi will ever be coin cell battery powered. Well, except for all the coin cell operated matter over WiFi smart buttons / remotes / switches you can buy from just about anywhere…
  - surajrmal 3mo ago
    None of those are using WiFi. Most use a different radio technology and require a hub to bridge the network.
    - solid_fuel 3mo ago
      I think some do use regular wifi, especially the amazon ones, but with a button you have an advantage where you could just stay idle and off the network most of the time, and only connect to send an event when pressed.
      - everforward 3mo ago
        That likely increases your latency by a fair bit. Most of my devices take a second-ish to connect, configure the WiFi stack and start sending data. I’m not sure I’d want a full second of latency on button presses. I would have figured Amazon used BTLE to the Alexa and used it as a BT to WiFi gateway
        solid_fuel 3mo ago
        BTLE and/or their IoT mesh network (Sidewalk?) would be a good way to go too, but if it's just a button to reorder laundry detergent or something then I don't think even a 30 second delay would be a deal killer for most people.
melastmohican 3mo ago
I was happy to make it work at all :-) There is a guy on the internet who measures the power consumption of many mcus and concludes the nrf52840 is the best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE7bOYCYETM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE7bOYCYETM

surajrmal 3mo ago

Nothing with WiFi will ever be coin cell battery powered. But that doesn't mean it couldn't be battery powered for a year or longer with bigger batteries. Otherwise you'll need a different radio technology.

happyopossum 3mo ago
> Nothing with WiFi will ever be coin cell battery powered. Well, except for all the coin cell operated matter over WiFi smart buttons / remotes / switches you can buy from just about anywhere…
- surajrmal 3mo ago
  None of those are using WiFi. Most use a different radio technology and require a hub to bridge the network.
  - solid_fuel 3mo ago
    I think some do use regular wifi, especially the amazon ones, but with a button you have an advantage where you could just stay idle and off the network most of the time, and only connect to send an event when pressed.
    - everforward 3mo ago
      That likely increases your latency by a fair bit. Most of my devices take a second-ish to connect, configure the WiFi stack and start sending data. I’m not sure I’d want a full second of latency on button presses. I would have figured Amazon used BTLE to the Alexa and used it as a BT to WiFi gateway
      - solid_fuel 3mo ago
        BTLE and/or their IoT mesh network (Sidewalk?) would be a good way to go too, but if it's just a button to reorder laundry detergent or something then I don't think even a 30 second delay would be a deal killer for most people.

melastmohican 3mo ago

I was happy to make it work at all :-) There is a guy on the internet who measures the power consumption of many mcus and concludes the nrf52840 is the best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE7bOYCYETM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE7bOYCYETM