<![CDATA[Slow battery performance with M5PaperS3]]>Hi,

I bought a M5PaperS3 to built a mobile WebDAV based calendar but I ran into some battery issues which I can´t explain. The device run for ~4 days before it becomes empty. I think either the MCU or another component doesn´t go to sleep.

It´s a minimal project that uses LVGL and FastEPD for the display.

What have I tested?

  • I´ve checked the datasheet of the IMU to be sure it is in power down mode by default because I don´t use it yet (suspend mode after PoR)
  • Disable WiFi, GPIO, etc. in ESP firmware
  • Disable the eInk Display (added epaper.einkPower(false) to the ESP firmware)

Has someone done something similar and run into the same issues or can me help figuring out whats wrong here?

You can find the code here:
https://github.com/Kampi/Calendar

Thanks!

]]>https://community.m5stack.com/topic/8087/slow-battery-performance-with-m5papers3RSS for NodeMon, 20 Apr 2026 16:14:32 GMTMon, 16 Feb 2026 06:18:50 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Slow battery performance with M5PaperS3 on Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:35:28 GMT]]>@felmue thanks again!

I implemented both and will check the power consumption again :)

]]>https://community.m5stack.com/post/30652https://community.m5stack.com/post/30652Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:35:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Slow battery performance with M5PaperS3 on Mon, 16 Feb 2026 19:57:16 GMT]]>Hello @Kampi

yes, the RTC (via PMS150G) is used to wake up the system.

And here you can see how the power off pulse is generated in M5Unified.

Thanks
Felix

]]>https://community.m5stack.com/post/30649https://community.m5stack.com/post/30649Mon, 16 Feb 2026 19:57:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Slow battery performance with M5PaperS3 on Mon, 16 Feb 2026 19:29:03 GMT]]>@felmue thanks for this answer and the measurement results. 5 mA is a lot, and the calculations make sense to me.

So using M5.Power.timerSleep(x) causes a real shutdown + wake after x seconds? I didn´t use the M5 module, but I assume it uses the RTC to trigger the PMS150G after a certain amount of time to wake the ESP. Is this correct?

If so, how can I shut off the device? Is it enough to send a pulse (what is the timing for it) via GPIO44 (PWROFF_Pulse)?

]]>https://community.m5stack.com/post/30648https://community.m5stack.com/post/30648Mon, 16 Feb 2026 19:29:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Slow battery performance with M5PaperS3 on Mon, 16 Feb 2026 07:26:35 GMT]]>Hello @Kampi

well, quickly looking though your code I see you are using ESP32 deep sleep. In ESP32 deep sleep the system consumes about 5 - 6 mA according to measurements I did a while ago. See here. And official values from M5Stack here.

With the 1800 mAh battery that gives you a theoretical run time of about 10 days. But since your system isn't in ESP32 deep sleep all the time and the battery cannot be completely emptied before the voltage is too low, 4 days sound about right.

If you want substantially longer runtime per battery charge you need to power off M5PaperS3 instead of using ESP32 deep sleep. Doing that brings the current down to a couple of uAs instead of mAs.

M5.Power.timerSleep(x) is used to shutdown M5PaperS3. See example here.

Thanks
Felix

]]>https://community.m5stack.com/post/30647https://community.m5stack.com/post/30647Mon, 16 Feb 2026 07:26:35 GMT