From the Lab ...

... Hacking and Slashing since 2002

So I decided I needed a little more data regarding how much current the RPi used at various points in time, and with various peripherals attached. So without further delay ... 
 
Test setup: Tektronix TM5006 with PS5010 & DM5110, RPi zero W; 32GB class 10 card; wifi on; VNC on; with and without Apple keyboard and mouse; with and without external LCD monitor; with and without camera module hooked up and/or turned on; and/ or streaming video. 
 
1) During boot, no external peripherals, wifi on: ~250mA (peak) 
2) During boot, with keyboard & mouse, wifi on, monitor attached: ~450mA (peak) 
3) During boot, camera module attached, wifi on: ~ 250mA (peak) (no discernible increase from attached camera) 
 
4) Steady State, no external peripherals, wifi on: ~115mA (peak) (typical average also) 
5) Steady State, with keyboard & mouse, wifi on: ~280mA (peak), with mouse movement: ~360mA (peak) 
6) Steady State, with keyboard & mouse, wifi on, monitor attached: ~290mA (peak), with mouse movement: ~385mA (peak) 
7) Steady State, camera module attached, wifi on: ~115mA (peak - no streaming), streaming video: ~ 360mA 
 
#7 is the key for me ... I plan on having wireless cameras around the chicken and duck coops, and the garden, and the yard. The original plan was to use solar to charge Lion battery packs ... but ... I might need a little more power for during the evenings and stretches of cloudy days. A typical 18650 cell has about 2500mAhr of current capacity. So at 360mA (worst case streaming constantly), that gives me about 5.15 hours (when converting from 3.7v to 5v at very high eff.)  

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