RAK12501 GPS Power Saving Mode

[DJX995]

I am having issues with my Meshtastic nodes running out of power. I was told by the manufacture that my nodes are using RAK19007 WisBlock with RAK4631 Core radio and RAK12501 GPS module. Is it possible to have the "power saving mode" implemented or does anyone know how to configure it? Thanks!

[jasonlearst]

Hi @DJX995 ,

I'm new to Meshtastic and the RAK hardware, but I do believe that I have figured this out. The RAK12501 power saving mode is connected to the PIN_3V3_EN which controls power to all of the RAK19007 peripheral slots. The Meshtastic Firmware disabled power saving by default due to users losing access to their other modules when the PIN_3V3_EN was toggled. See meshtastic/firmware#3128 for the issue and linked change disabling the power saving if you are interested.

I was able to manually enable power saving by setting the "Enable Pin" for GPS to 34 in the "Position" settings menu. This reduces my devices power consumption to ~ 12mA when idle and ~40mA when updating the GPS location. Without this change the GPS was active all the time consuming ~40mA.

Just keep in mind that this will cause any other modules connected to lose power during this time as well.