Captured traces with and without RFCAL. This is on an ESP-202 powered from one Li-Ion battery through a MCP1700 LDO. The DSO is measuring the voltage across a 1R resistor in the battery ground wire.
A wakeup with RFCAL
And one without RFCAL
The calibration phase is clearly visible around 120ms into the wakeup (about 30ms long), and the full cycle is longer by about the same 30ms. The power consumption is up 4.5mAs.
I note that this module seems to use less power (172mA max) than I experienced before (around 400mA). I need to test other modules to see if this is related.
The battery measures 4.13v during deep sleep and 3.70v during activity. Changing yo an ESP-12E (this board uses an ASM1117 LDO which consumed 2-3mA itself).
A wakeup with RFCAL
And one without RFCAL
Very different. Not only the power usage is higher but it has a different pattern. Also the power rise/fall (see the start/end of the cycle) is very fast in the 202 compared to the 12E. Is this the LDO? The ESP?
I tested an ESP-12F with a MCP1700 LDO and I saw traces similar to the ESP-12E.
I also tried 3*AA NiMH with no change.
Everything done with a recent (18/Aug/16) dev SDK branch.
Is this the ESP-12 itself? Some internal parameters?