The nRF52 Power Management module provides battery protection features to prevent over-discharge, minimise likelihood of brownout and flash corruption conditions existing, and enable safe voltage-based recovery.
## Features
### Boot Voltage Protection
- Checks battery voltage immediately after boot and before mesh operations commence
- If voltage is below a configurable threshold (e.g., 3300mV), the device configures voltage wake (LPCOMP + VBUS) and enters protective shutdown (SYSTEMOFF)
- Prevents boot loops when battery is critically low
- Skipped when external power (USB VBUS) is detected
### Voltage Wake (LPCOMP + VBUS)
- Configures the nRF52's Low Power Comparator (LPCOMP) before entering SYSTEMOFF
- Enables USB VBUS detection so external power can wake the device
- Device automatically wakes when battery voltage rises above recovery threshold or when VBUS is detected
### Early Boot Register Capture
- Captures RESETREAS (reset reason) and GPREGRET2 (shutdown reason) before SystemInit() clears them
- Allows firmware to determine why it booted (cold boot, watchdog, LPCOMP wake, etc.)
- Allows firmware to determine why it last shut down (user request, low voltage, boot protection)
### Shutdown Reason Tracking
Shutdown reason codes (stored in GPREGRET2):
| Code | Name | Description |
|------|------|-------------|
| 0x00 | NONE | Normal boot / no previous shutdown |
- User power-off on Heltec T114 does not enable LPCOMP wake.
- VBUS detection is used to skip boot lockout on external power, and VBUS wake is configured alongside LPCOMP when supported hardware exposes VBUS to the nRF52.
## Technical Details
### Architecture
The power management functionality is integrated into the `NRF52Board` base class in `src/helpers/NRF52Board.cpp`. Board variants provide hardware-specific configuration via a `PowerMgtConfig` struct and override `initiateShutdown(uint8_t reason)` to perform board-specific power-down work and conditionally enable voltage wake (LPCOMP + VBUS).
### Early Boot Capture
A static constructor with priority 101 in `NRF52Board.cpp` captures the RESETREAS and GPREGRET2 registers before:
- SystemInit() (priority 102) - which clears RESETREAS
- Static C++ constructors (default priority 65535)
This ensures we capture the true reset reason before any initialisation code runs.
### Board Implementation
To enable power management on a board variant:
1.**Enable in platformio.ini**:
```ini
-D NRF52_POWER_MANAGEMENT
```
2.**Define configuration in variant.h**:
```c
#define PWRMGT_VOLTAGE_BOOTLOCK 3300 // Won't boot below this voltage (mV)
#define PWRMGT_LPCOMP_AIN 7 // AIN channel for voltage sensing
NRF52Board::begin(); // or NRF52BoardDCDC::begin()
// ... board setup ...
#ifdef NRF52_POWER_MANAGEMENT
checkBootVoltage(&power_config);
#endif
}
```
For user-initiated shutdowns, `powerOff()` remains board-specific. Power management only arms LPCOMP for automated shutdown reasons (boot protection/low voltage).
4.**Declare override in board .h file**:
```cpp
#ifdef NRF52_POWER_MANAGEMENT
void initiateShutdown(uint8_t reason) override;
#endif
```
### Voltage Wake Configuration
The LPCOMP (Low Power Comparator) is configured to:
- Monitor the specified AIN channel (0-7 corresponding to P0.02-P0.05, P0.28-P0.31)
- Compare against VDD fraction reference (REFSEL: 0-6=1/8..7/8, 7=ARef, 8-15=1/16..15/16)
- Detect UP events (voltage rising above threshold)
- Use 50mV hysteresis for noise immunity
- Wake the device from SYSTEMOFF when triggered
VBUS wake is enabled via the POWER peripheral USBDETECTED event whenever `configureVoltageWake()` is used. This requires USB VBUS to be routed to the nRF52 (typical on nRF52840 boards with native USB).