Reducing Power Consumption on the Arduino Enabled ESP8266

In this tutorial we look at how to reduce the power consumption of your Arduino enabled ESP8266 WiFi module for battery powered applications.

//**************Arduino code: ESP8266_Sleep_Example *************
/*
 This sketch was created for a tutorial on saving power using the ESP8266 with the Arduino IDE 
 That was presented on the ForceTronics YouTube Channel. This code is public domain for anybody to use
 at their own risk
 */
#include <Arduino.h>
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h> //not using WiFi but need for some of the sleep commands

const int LED_PIN = 5; // Thing's onboard, green LED
const int sleepTimeS = 5; //sets deepsleep time to 5 sec

void setup() 
{
  pinMode(LED_PIN,OUTPUT); //setup LED pin 
  flashLED(); //function that flashes LED on and off
  WiFi.forceSleepBegin(0); //this function turns on modem sleep mode (turns off RF but not CPU)
  flashLED();
  WiFi.forceSleepWake(); //wakes modem up from sleep mode
  flashLED();
  // deepSleep time is defined in microseconds. Multiply seconds by 1e6 
  ESP.deepSleep(sleepTimeS * 1000000); //Can also add mode setting: WAKE_RF_DEFAULT, WAKE_RFCAL, WAKE_NO_RFCAL, WAKE_RF_DISABLED
  //ESP.deepSleep(0,WAKE_RF_DEFAULT); //In Deep-sleep mode, the chip can be woken up and initialized by a low-level pulse
    //generated on the EXT_RSTB pin via an external IO
}

void loop() 
{ //do nothing in the loop
}

//function that flashes LED at 1.5sec intervals
void flashLED() {
  digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH);
  delay(1500);
  digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW);
  delay(1500);
}

//**************Arduino code: ESP8266_Sleep_Cloud_Example *************
/*
 This sketch was used for a tutorial on saving power with the ESP8266 using Arduino IDE 
 That was presented on the ForceTronics YouTube Channel. This code is public domain for anybody to 
 use or modify at your own risk

 Note that this code was leveraged from a Sparkfun example 
 on using their cloud service Phant
 */
#include <Arduino.h>
// Include the ESP8266 WiFi library.
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
// Include the SparkFun Phant library.
#include <Phant.h>

//Set your network name and password
const char WiFiSSID[] = "YourNetwork";
const char WiFiPSK[] = "YourPassword";

//define constants for pin control and node number
const int LED_PIN = 5; // Thing's onboard, green LED
const int ANALOG_PIN = A0; // The only analog pin on the Thing
const int NODE_NUM = 1; //node identifier

//declare phant address and security keys
const char PhantHost[] = "data.sparkfun.com";
const char PublicKey[] = "YourPublicKey";
const char PrivateKey[] = "YourPrivateKey";

//specify the rate that you post data to cloud
const unsigned long postRate = 15000;
unsigned long lastPost = 0;
const int sleepTimeS = 15;

void setup() 
{
  initHardware(); //setup arduino hardware
  connectWiFi(); //Connect your WiFi network
  digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH);
  while (postToPhant() != 1) //post to cloud in setup code because we will reset after sleep
  {
    delay(100);
  }
  digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW);
  // deepSleep time is defined in microseconds. Multiply
  // seconds by 1e6 
  ESP.deepSleep(sleepTimeS * 1000000); //This is where we go to sleep, will reset upon waking up
}

void loop() 
{ //do nothing here
}

//function used to connect to WiFi network and where we set transmit power level
void connectWiFi()
{
  byte ledStatus = LOW;
  //Set transmit power level
  WiFi.setOutputPower(0.0); //sets transmit power to 0dbm to lower power consumption, but reduces usable range
  // Set WiFi mode to station (as opposed to AP or AP_STA)
  WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);
  // WiFI.begin([ssid], [passkey]) initiates a WiFI connection
  // to the stated [ssid], using the [passkey] as a WPA, WPA2,
  // or WEP passphrase.
  WiFi.begin(WiFiSSID, WiFiPSK);
  
  // Use the WiFi.status() function to check if the ESP8266
  // is connected to a WiFi network.
  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED)
  {
    // Blink the LED
    digitalWrite(LED_PIN, ledStatus); // Write LED high/low
    ledStatus = (ledStatus == HIGH) ? LOW : HIGH;
    
    // Delays allow the ESP8266 to perform critical tasks
    // defined outside of the sketch. These tasks include
    // setting up, and maintaining, a WiFi connection.
    delay(100);
    // Potentially infinite loops are generally dangerous.
    // Add delays -- allowing the processor to perform other
    // tasks -- wherever possible.
  }
}

//function that sets up some initial hardware states
void initHardware()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW);
}

//this function takes data and posts it to the cloud
int postToPhant()
{
  // LED turns on when we enter, it'll go off when we 
  // successfully post.
  digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH);
  
  // Declare an object from the Phant library - phant
  Phant phant(PhantHost, PublicKey, PrivateKey);
  //These functions build data and field string that will be sent to phant cloud
  phant.add("adcdata", analogRead(ANALOG_PIN));
  phant.add("wifinode", NODE_NUM);
  
  // Now connect to data.sparkfun.com, and post our data:
  WiFiClient client; //declare client object that will post the data
  const int httpPort = 80; //specify port to post through
  
  if (!client.connect(PhantHost, httpPort)) //attempt to connect to phant
  {
    // If we fail to connect, return 0.
    return 0;
  }
 //Send post to phant
  client.print(phant.post());
  
  // Read all the lines of the reply from server and print them to Serial
  while(client.available()){
    String line = client.readStringUntil('\r');
    //Serial.print(line); // Trying to avoid using serial
  }
  
  // Before we exit, turn the LED off.
  digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW);
  
  return 1; // Return success
}