ESP32 Deep Sleep Tutorial for Low Power Projects

The ESP32 chip is a fantastic new chip with great features. It offers a lot of processing power, two 32 bit cores, a lot of memory, Bluetooth and WiFi in a small and easy to use chip. One of the most interesting things about the ESP32 chip is that it offers a low-power deep sleep mode which is very easy to use. Let's see how to use it.

Inside the ESP32 chip, we can find the two processing cores, the RAM and ROM memory, the WiFi module, the Bluetooth Module, a hardware acceleration module for cryptographic applications, the RTC module, and a lot of peripherals. Inside the RTC module, we can find a PMU (Phasor measurement unit) a small and very low power 32-bit co-processor, and 8Kbs of RAM memory. This small amount of memory is very useful as you are going to find out in a moment. Also note, even the RTC memory of the ESP32 chip is 4 times larger than the memory of the Arduino Uno.

The WiFi modules, the Processing Cores, and the Bluetooth module require a lot of current to operate. So, if we want to conserve power we have to disable them when don't use them. This is what we are going to do now. We are going to put the ESP32 to Deep – Sleep mode where it disables everything except the RTC module. There is a light sleep mode and the Deep – Sleep mode. In Deep Sleep mode the ESP32 offers the lowest power consumption. It just needs 0.01 mAs of current in Deep Sleep mode and that's why we are going to try today.

[RobSummers]

Great video! Thanks for providing more info on the esp32. There are not enough videos about this amazing chip on YouTube. Would love to see more! 😀

[paddy]

that background music is so catchy. i keep hearing it after the video has finished

[easynow]

wonderful video..and interesting to know that power consumption depends from the development board because i was thinking im doing something wrong.
Just as a reference i measured esp32-wroom (the cheap Chinese version of esp32) and the deep sleep consumption is ~10mA, and esp32-cam is around ~6.3mA.
I guess esp32-cam has no onboard leds so its more power efficient..

[ufohunter]

I learn something new with every video you put out.
Didn't know about the bug or the work-around in deep sleep mode. I hope its a software bug. Hardware is bad news for those who have already bought a few boards.

[mihajlopetkovic]

I think that the only reason it draws 20 mA in deep-sleep is because the red power LED is always on, and LEDs draw 20 mA of current. Desoldering it should do the trick and reduce it to 10 uA.

[timwright]

we have about 20 temp sensors in green houses - but can only monitor where we have power because deep sleep is so dysfunctional on most ESP8266. Seems like the MFGR would put more attention into deep sleep. It opens up huge options. Thanks for the vid and firebeetle idea.

[fabiofragiacomo]

When I design low power I use a trick: I power external devices (like small LCD) directly by the GPIO of the microcontroller, so I skip enable transistors/mosfets. Of course current of those should be lower than the ABS max rating for the GPIO
Many thanks for the good video, subscribed!

[anumsheraz]

Non-stop informative and amazingness - LITERALLY !

[georgei]

Remove the LED form the board. That should reduce the deep sleep power consumption alot. The fire beetle board doesn't have an LED.

[radhakrishnannv]

Can you do a video in which you wake the ESP32 from modem sleep mode and turn on ESP32 using DTIM beconing mechanism.

[polloM]

using the DOIT ESP32, I Remove the AMS1117 and the led, directly powering the with dswy2596 (led removed) DC DC 6v battery. Whit timer and GPIO EX1 interruptions got a power consuption of 72mW :)

[paulpomme]

I've just tested with an AZ Delivery Wroom-32: 2mA in DeepSleep.
With another Wroom-32 (forgot the board brend)- : 5 mA ; after removing the power led which remains on during DeepSleep on this board) : 4 mA.
I tried 3v input : very surprising: far more consumption.

[vigneshs]

You have Great talent in video making and electronics

[satyanand]

I will try to use this solution. Thank you for taking this to youtube

[Educs]

I hope you took away lots from this video and you managed to get your ESP32 to get to sleep. Let me know below!

PS. WANT TO LEARN CODING? CHECK MY NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL!

[dahirmuhammaddahir]

my first video on your channel, watched, subscribed, awesome

[Delali]

This is really great. I've been planning on making a video for the esp32 and Arduino line for my channel.

Good to know some of these tricks and challenges.

[brunodonascimentomaciel]

Hello from Brazil!
Very nice explanation!!

[kennethbeal]

Thank you, I love your approach -- when faced with a bug, find a workaround. Your videos make me smile, you do a great job. Also: normally I watch at 2x, had to slow you down to 1.75x. :)

[BurkenProductions]

But what if you want to make a wifi access point and also have deep sleep when no one is connected? How would you check regularly then like every minute if someone wants to connect or how would you do it?