Electronic – Power Needed For Bluetooth Transmission

bluetoothlow-powerpower

I'm developing a project that has a bluetooth module transmit to an android phone. The project is extremely power limited (it's energy harvesting) and I'm wondering how much power am I looking at to transmit Bluetooth data?

The bluetooth module will be getting sensor data and transmitting that data to a phone about 10 feet away, ideally whenever the user calls for it, but can limit it to maybe every 30 minutes minimum wait.

Best Answer

It will depend on the bluetooth module you've chosen and how busy it is in your application. The Raytheon BC04 module is fairly typical:

Deep sleep  40uA 
ACL 40ms sniff  2.4mA 
SCO connection HV1  39mA 
Tx burst +4dBm  58mA

For an energy harvesting application, Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth Smart) is likely to give you better results.