A collection of programming snippets, tips, and tricks for developing with Particle IoT devices
The balance between conserving battery power and conserving cellular data can make the question of “best” sleep mode a tricky question. However, the most common use-case probably looks something like:
Particle.publish() dataN minutesGenerally speaking, if you are putting your device to sleep for less than 23
minutes, you should use “stop mode (pin + time) with
SLEEP_NETWORK_STANDBY”. This will look something like:
System.sleep(D1, RISING, sleep_sec, SLEEP_NETWORK_STANDBY);
Where D1 is a pin which can wake the device, and sleep_sec is how long
you want to sleep (in seconds). NOTE: Only certain pins are valid for the
wakeup interrupt, be sure to check the documentation for details.
If you are putting your device to sleep for more than 23 minutes, you should probably use deep sleep:
System.sleep(SLEEP_MODE_DEEP, sleep_sec);
This sleep mode will turn off the cellular modem completely, which saves more power. But it also means that on wake, that the device must reestablish its connection to the cellular network, which uses extra power and an additional amount of data for the handshaking (about 6K).
You may be wondering “why 23 minutes?” This actually is particular to the use of Particle SIMs in the United States (or is it all of North America?). The agreement that Particle has with its partner carriers allows for a 23 minute keep-alive period. If you use a third-party SIM, your keep-alive time may be *much* lower (e.g., 30 seconds – but check with your provider to be sure).
Some information about managing the cellular modem in conjunction with the use
of SLEEP_MODE_DEEP.
https://community.particle.io/t/electron-sleep-mode-deep-tips-and-examples/27823
Excellent information and tutorial about Electron sleep modes by @rickkas7. This article summarizes the various sleep modes, and the pros and cons of each with regards to power usage and wake-up time. This will help you choose the best sleep mode to use, depending on how often your project needs to wake up and publish data. or how quickly it needs to be ready to publish after waking up from a sleep state.
https://community.particle.io/t/choosing-an-electron-sleep-mode/41822
The syntax for using STOP Mode sleep requires a pin, and trigger mode, in addition to the sleep time. Your device will wake if either the pin is activated or the time expires. But what if you you don’t want to wake on a pin signal, or you don’t have any pins available? You can use an empty pin list and trigger:
// STOP sleep for 60 seconds, no pin monitored:
// Hat tip: @ScruffR
// @see https://community.particle.io/t/gen3-sleep-sleep-for-time-only/47886/6
System.sleep( {}, {}, 60 );
The maximum sleep time for Mesh devices is roughly 24 days, using STOP mode. For DEEP_SLEEP or STANDBY mode, an external RealTime Clock is required.