I have a bunch of devices: ESP32 Lite, AHT10, INA228, and a Li-Polymer battery. The board is configured for deep sleep: 5 minutes of deep sleep, 30 seconds of operation to send sensor data to Home Assistant. But for some reason, this deep sleep schedule isn’t being followed. The board might go into sleep for 10-20-30 minutes and run for 10 seconds, or it might go into deep sleep for 5 minutes as scheduled. What could be the cause?
Sorry, I made a mistake. 5 minutes of deep sleep and 30 seconds of wakefulness
The thing is that to view the log through ESPHome, I connect the USB to the computer and then open the logs on the ESPHome website. But in this case, everything works reliably. 30 seconds is enough to wake up, connect to Wi-Fi, and retrieve data from the sensors.
Yes, running on battery power alone does cause problems, even though the battery is new and charged, so I don’t think it’s the problem. Furthermore, if disable deep sleep and keep all the same modules, it works just as reliably on battery power. However, I think that even if disable deep sleep and leave the data transfer intervals longer, the battery charge will still be significantly short.
Okay, I’ll try adding this and check what the output will be.
Just few days ago one forum member confirmed his board failing at battery voltage <4V (board with battery connector). Bad design or bad components.
Also I remember that Esp32 is especially sensitive for voltage during sleep/wakeup cycles.
If you have voltage meter, you could measure Esp 3.3V-pin voltage when battery powered.
My first thought is that 30 seconds isn’t very long. If your wi-fi channel is clear then it’s probably OK most of the time … but if there’s radio frequency interference, or a neighbour streaming a 4K movie on the same (or an adjacent) channel … your ESP32 might simply not be getting enough clear air to make the wi-fi connection and report values before it powers off (goes back to sleep again). This would certainly look as though it had slept for multiple cycles.
By “ESPHome website” do you mean the “ESPHome Builder” Add-on for Home Assistant ? And if so, did you select “Wirelessly”, “Plug into this computer”, or “Plug into computer running ESPHome Dashboard” ?
Yes, that’s correct. And to download, I selected “Plug into this computer”
Regarding this issue, I don’t know what to say. And how can I check it?
Perhaps if I increase the board’s battery life, it might have enough time to connect to my network, but in that case, it will also drain more battery power?
I added this feature to my firmware. It returns the number 4 in response, which, according to the instructions, indicates a timer wakeup. However, it can still go into deep sleep for 5 minutes, or even 10-20 minutes.
I haven’t actually used this method myself … instead I installed ESPHome on my PC and have been using minicom to see the logs - particularly after the ttyACM0 disappears when the ESP32 goes to sleep.
I just tried “Plug into this computer” and its LOG does give the results you are wanting before wifi connects.
That is the $64,00 question*. There are plenty of tools which show the signal strength, but I have yet to see anything which conveniently shows how busy the channel is. Unfortunately this varies quite a lot over time, so what looks clear now might be filled with a streamed 8K video in 10 minutes time I have contemplated setting up a RasPi running a promiscuous scanner just to monitor the actual traffic - but it could only monitor 1 channel at a time.
some people minimise their awake time by doing all the work of checking sensors, etc, and finally calling deep_sleep - all in the on:boot; routine !
FWIW, this is my common code which includes much of my research from my own wi-fi problems:
###########################################################
#
# Start with the Wi-fi connection
#
# As at Sept 2025 ESPHome still DOES NOT SUPPORT WI-FI ROAMING,
# and will sometimes connect to a WAP with lower signal strength.
#
# When an ESPHome device boots up it scans for the allowable
# network (SSID) with highest signal strength. Having made
# the connection it does not check for a stronger signal,
# even though a stronger signal may later become available.
# Some users reported that, even worse, if the scan finds multiple WAPs on the same WLAN
# it connects to the WAP (BSSID) with lowest channel number
# - not the one with strongest signal strength !
#
###########################################################
wifi:
ssid: $wifi_ssid
password: $wifi_password
manual_ip:
static_ip: 192.168.1.${deviceIP}
gateway: 192.168.1.1
subnet: 255.255.255.0
# fast_connect: True
output_power: 10.5 # reduce output power MAY improve Wi-fi in study
##### add some debugging when compiled on my development PC
on_connect:
then:
lambda: |-
ESP_LOGI("TEST", "##### >>>>>>>>>>> WIFI CONNECT");
on_disconnect:
then:
lambda: |-
ESP_LOGI("TEST", "##### >>>>>>>>>>> WIFI DISCONNECT");
# Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
ap:
ssid: "$devicename Fallback Hotspot"
password: !secret wifi_ap_password
# allow updating firmware OTA (Over The Air = by wi-fi)
ota:
platform: esphome
password: !secret esphome_ota_password
#captive_portal:
# this displays the device's status at http:IP_Address
web_server:
port: 80
api:
encryption:
key: !secret esphome_api_encryption
##### add some debugging when compiled on my development PC
on_client_connected:
- logger.log:
format: "##### >>>>>>>>>> API Client '%s' connected with IP %s"
args: ["client_info.c_str()", "client_address.c_str()"]
on_client_disconnected:
- logger.log: "##### >>>>>>>>>> API client disconnected!"
###########################################################
#
# Add some common sensors - wi-fi signal strength,
# uptime, ESPHome version & compile date/time
#
###########################################################
sensor:
- platform: wifi_signal
name: $devicename Wifi signal
update_interval: $update_interval_network # how often to report wifi signal strength
- platform: template
id: wifi_channel
name: $devicename "Wifi connected channel"
entity_category: "diagnostic"
# human readable uptime sensor output to the text sensor
- platform: uptime
id: uptime_sensor
name: $devicename Uptime
type: seconds
update_interval: $update_interval_network # how often to report
# on_raw_value:
text_sensor:
- platform: version
name: $devicename ESPHome Version
hide_timestamp: False
- platform: template
id: wifi_wap_loc
name: $devicename Wifi connected WAP
entity_category: "diagnostic"
# on_value:
# then:
# - lambda: |-
# ESP_LOGD("main", "The new value of wifi_wap_loc is %s", x.c_str());
# this section from https://github.com/esphome/feature-requests/issues/731
- platform: wifi_info
# ip_address:
# name: $devicename ESP IP Address
# update_interval: 360s # We use static IPs everywhere, but using 'never' results in the sensor having no value
# scan_results:
# name: $devicename ESP Latest Scan Results
# update_interval: 10s
bssid:
id: esp_connected_bssid
name: $devicename Wifi Connected BSSID
on_value:
then:
# determine a friendly name indicating which WAP we connected to
- lambda: |-
ESP_LOGD("main", "The current ESP Connected BSSID is %s", x.c_str());
if ( x == "A0:36:BC:0E:29:38" ) {
id(wifi_wap_loc).publish_state("LivingRoom"); // ASUS RT-AX55 192.168.1.1
id(wifi_channel).publish_state(8);
} else if ( x == "30:5A:3A:C5:B4:20" ) {
id(wifi_wap_loc).publish_state("Laundry"); // ASUS RT-68U 192.168.1.2
id(wifi_channel).publish_state(3);
} else if ( x == "5C:E9:31:1C:C1:69") {
id(wifi_wap_loc).publish_state("Bedroom"); // TP-Link WPA8631 192.168.1.3
id(wifi_channel).publish_state(11);
} else if ( x == "64:66:B3:ED:08:C4" ) {
id( wifi_wap_loc ).publish_state("Study"); // TP-Link WR743 192.168.1.4
id(wifi_channel).publish_state(13);
} else {
id(wifi_wap_loc).publish_state("Unknown");
id(wifi_channel).publish_state(-99);
};
// std::string val = id(wifi_wap_loc).state;
// ESP_LOGI("main", "Value of my sensor: %s", val.c_str());
time:
- platform: sntp
id: sntp_time
update_interval: "120h" # I guess this is to poll the SNTP server ?
footnote: * that’s an expression from an old USA TV game show
My power banks and also old USB chargers I use for power supply shut down in deep sleep mode because the circuit doesn’t draw enough current. How is the battery connected to the system?
If the supply voltage drops too low, the ESP won’t wake up. It might be right on the edge in your case, which would explain the fluctuating wake-up times.
Have you tried testing it with a lab power supply? If it works with a reliable power supply, then the problem is with the battery.
I have contemplated setting up a RasPi running a promiscuous scanner just to monitor the actual traffic - but it could only monitor 1 channel at a time.