Operating Modes & Power¶

The regulator is wired directly to the battery and is always powered. It manages its own power draw using two inputs: the engine ignition signal and the wake wire. You never turn the regulator on or off — you turn the key, and the regulator does the rest.

This page explains what the device is doing in each state: when WiFi is up, when the alternator can charge, when the dashboard is reachable, and how the processor throttles itself to save power at anchor.

The three WiFi modes, briefly¶

How the regulator gets on a network is covered in WiFi Setup; the short version:

Client mode — joins an existing network: your boat's router, or your phone's Personal Hotspot. The normal mode, and the only one with Cloud Features.
The regulator's own hotspot — the regulator runs its own WiFi network (ground pin 12 at boot). Full dashboard and full charging, no internet, no Cloud Features. This is a different thing from your phone's hotspot — running on a phone hotspot is Client mode.
Setup mode — a minimal configuration page for entering WiFi credentials (first boot, or ground pin 11 at boot). The alternator is disabled in setup mode, and the device stays at full power until configured.

Power management below applies to Client mode and the regulator's own hotspot. Setup mode is exempt — it always runs at full speed with WiFi on, since you are expected to be actively configuring it.

Engine running (ignition on)¶

Full power, no exceptions: processor at 240 MHz, WiFi up, all sensors running, alternator charging under control of the charging logic. The dashboard streams live data roughly ten times per second.

Key off — the wind-down¶

Turning the ignition off does not put the regulator to sleep immediately. It runs a deliberate shutdown sequence:

Field ramp-down — full power is held while the alternator field winds down to zero.
Save everything — all settings, statistics, alternator-health and boat-performance data, and any open logs are written to permanent storage.
Cloud drain — WiFi stays up for 30 minutes so queued cloud uploads (history, performance data, weather) can finish.
Sleep — WiFi turns off and the processor drops to 80 MHz.

So for about half an hour after you shut down, the dashboard remains reachable as if the engine were running. After that, the device is in low power.

Low power (asleep, still watching)¶

In low power the processor runs at 80 MHz — but the regulator is not off. It keeps reading its sensors and logging battery voltage, state of charge, and vessel motion, so your history has no gaps at anchor. The only thing paused is the alternator temperature probe, which is meaningless with the engine stopped.

What happens to WiFi in low power depends on one setting, WiFi Standby (Keep Reachable) in System Settings:

WiFi Standby off (the default) — WiFi shuts off completely. The dashboard is unreachable until you wake the device. This is the lowest-draw state.
WiFi Standby on — WiFi stays connected to your boat's router in a low-power napping state, so the dashboard stays reachable at anchor with no button press. See WiFi Standby below.

Two things wake the device to full power regardless of that setting:

Ignition on — full power resumes before the engine settles into idle.
The wake wire — see below.

WiFi Standby (Keep Reachable)¶

By default the regulator shuts WiFi off when the engine stops, and you reach it again with the wake wire or by turning the key. WiFi Standby, a toggle in System Settings, changes that: instead of switching the radio off, the regulator keeps it associated with your boat's router in a low-power napping mode (modem sleep), so you can open the dashboard any time with no button press.

It works only in Client mode (joined to your boat's WiFi, or a phone hotspot that stays on) — there is nothing to stay associated with when the regulator is running its own hotspot.
It costs only about 1 mA more than fully-off (measured), so it can stay reachable indefinitely while the regulator is on your router. There is no idle timeout.
The processor still naps at 80 MHz when no one is looking. The moment a browser or app connects it bumps to 240 MHz for a responsive dashboard, then drops back when you disconnect. So an open dashboard at anchor draws roughly the same as the engine running.
The first packet after a quiet spell has a short (~0.1–0.3 s) wake-up latency from modem sleep. After that the dashboard behaves normally.

WiFi Standby is off out of the box. Turn it on if you want to check state of charge or history from your phone at anchor without walking to the panel.

The wake wire (pin 10, Orange)¶

The wake wire lives in the same control cable as the override wires (Cable 4, RJ3 right port). Touch pin 10 (Orange) to pin 16 (brown wire / GND) — a momentary contact is enough; many installations wire it to a panel button.

Grounding it gives you 5 minutes of full power: WiFi comes up, and the complete dashboard is available for checking state of charge, history, or settings — without turning the key. Every touch restarts the 5-minute clock, and the dashboard console warns 20 seconds before the window expires. When it runs out, the device drops back to low power on its own.

Operating modes summary¶

Ignition	Wake wire	WiFi Standby	WiFi mode	WiFi	Alternator	Dashboard	Processor
On	—	—	Client	On — ship's network	Charging	Full dashboard	240 MHz
On	—	—	Own hotspot	On — own hotspot	Charging	Full dashboard	240 MHz
On	—	—	Setup	On — setup hotspot	Disabled	Setup page only	240 MHz
Off	Grounded in last 5 min	any	Client / own hotspot	On	Off — engine not running; logging continues	Full dashboard	240 MHz
Off	Not grounded	On	Client	On — napping, stays reachable	Off — logging continues	Full dashboard	80 MHz idle / 240 MHz when a dashboard is open
Off	Not grounded	Off	Client / own hotspot	Off	Off — logging continues	None — ground the wake wire	80 MHz
Off	—	—	Setup	On — setup hotspot	Disabled	Setup page only	240 MHz

Notes on the table:

For the first ~30 minutes after key-off the device is still in the wind-down sequence above: full power, WiFi up, dashboard reachable.
WiFi Standby is a Client-mode setting; it has no effect when the regulator runs its own hotspot, or in Setup mode. With it on, the device stays reachable at anchor instead of going dark — see WiFi Standby.
"Logging continues" means battery and motion data keep recording in low power; nothing in your history goes missing while the device sleeps.
Setup mode never sleeps. If the device is unconfigured, it waits at full power for you to configure it.

How much power it actually uses¶

The regulator is wired to the battery full-time, so its own draw matters. These are bench-measured figures for the complete device — both power supplies, the processor, and the sensors — with the alternator field off (when the field is on, the alternator's output dwarfs the regulator's housekeeping draw, so it isn't a meaningful parasitic load).

State	12 V system	24 V system	48 V system
Ignition on (full speed)	50 mA · 0.67 W	32 mA · 0.84 W	26 mA · 1.31 W
Low power, dashboard open (WiFi Standby)	≈ same as ignition on	≈ same as ignition on	≈ same as ignition on
Low power, idle, reachable (WiFi Standby, most common)	20 mA · 0.27 W	13 mA · 0.34 W	8 mA · 0.40 W
Low power, WiFi fully off (default)	20 mA · 0.24 W	12 mA · 0.29 W	7 mA · 0.34 W

The headline: keeping WiFi reachable at anchor with WiFi Standby costs only about 1 mA over shutting it off completely — staying reachable on demand is effectively free. For scale, the idle 12 V case is about 0.1 % per day of a 400 Ah house bank.

For the full measurement method, per-rail breakdown, and the power-supply design behind these numbers, see Switching Power Supplies.

WiFi Setup — how the regulator reaches a network (boat WiFi, phone hotspot, or its own hotspot), the setup page, and the override wires.
Troubleshooting — recovery procedures, including the boot-override pins.
Boot & Main Loop — how the firmware itself sequences these states.