Badger2040 wake from sleep?

[stanelie]

CircuitPython version and board name

Adafruit CircuitPython 10.0.3 on 2025-10-17; Pimoroni Badger 2040 with rp2040

Code/REPL

# something I tried...
# INACTIVITY TIMEOUT (Only on battery)
if time.monotonic() - last_activity > INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT:
    _, is_charging = get_battery_status()
    
    if is_charging:
        print("On USB power - staying awake")
        last_activity = time.monotonic()
    else:
        print(f"DEBUG: Inactivity timeout. Saving state. Current Page: {current}")

        for btn in buttons.values():
            btn.deinit()

        button_pins = [
            board.SW_UP,
            board.SW_DOWN, 
            board.SW_A,
            board.SW_B,
            board.SW_C
        ]

        pin_alarms = [
            alarm.pin.PinAlarm(pin=pin, value=True, edge=True, pull=False) 
            for pin in button_pins
        ]
        
        print("Entering deep sleep. Press any button to wake...")
        
        alarm.exit_and_deep_sleep_until_alarms(*pin_alarms)

Behavior

Maybe not a bug, but a feature request?

The Badger2040 has a display.halt() command that puts the display to sleep (removes power from the eink display) and sets the rp2040 in deep sleep where it supposedly draws less then 1 ma. It can then be woken by a button press (any button), which resets the CPU and reloads main.py.

Is there a way to achieve this with Circuitpython? I tried some things with alarms and trying to maintain pins to the correct voltage so they can wake the device, but all failed.

I found this source code that looks like it might be something to do with the firmware? Not too sure. Here it is anyway : https://github.com/pimoroni/badger2040/blob/main/firmware/modules/wakeup/wakeup.cpp

Am I missing something? How do I achieve this?

Any help appreciated!

Description

No response

Additional information

No response

[bablokb]

With the Badger2040, you don't need a pin-alarm, everything is handled in hardware. To turn power off, drive board.EN_3V3 low. To wake up, press any button at least two seconds. Note that all of this only works when running from battery, while connected to USB, the board does not shut down.

[stanelie]

It looks like there is no board.EN_3V3 :

>>> import board
>>> dir(board)
['__class__', '__name__', 'DISPLAY', 'ENABLE_DIO', 'GP0', 'GP1', 'I2C', 'INKY_BUSY', 'INKY_CS', 'INKY_DC', 'INKY_RST', 'INT', 'MISO', 'MOSI', 'REF_1V2', 'RX', 'SCK', 'SCL', 'SDA', 'SPI', 'SW_A', 'SW_B', 'SW_C', 'SW_DOWN', 'SW_UP', 'TX', 'UART', 'USER_LED', 'USER_SW', 'VBAT_SENSE', 'VBUS_DETECT', 'VREF_POWER', '__dict__', 'board_id']
>>> 

What else can I try?

[stanelie]

I think it works with board.ENABLE_DIO.value = False.
I now need to verify what current is being drawn.

The micropython firmware only needs a short button press to wake the badger. Why is it different? It's the same hardware...

Thanks for the tip!

[dhalbert]

When CircuitPython starts up, it waits for various things, like wait for you to possibly go into safe mode.

[stanelie]

Is there a way to disable this, even if I eventually get stuck and have to re-flash the firmware to get out of it? Is there a way to make it boot faster?

[dhalbert]

It's possible to build a custom version that does not have the safe-mode wait, or to add a different way to go into safe mode (say, holding down a button). What kind of delay are you seeing, and what are you seeing on the RGB status LED?

[stanelie]

I was concerned about the 2 seconds delay of holding the button to wake up the badger. That's 2 seconds more then what happens when running similar code under micropython to wake it up.

[bablokb]

As @dhalbert has said, you can reduce this to one second.

You cannot compare a generic firmware like CircuitPython with a specifically patched version of MicroPython that Pimoroni uses. Their firmware is very limited (to Pimoroni devices) and they implement all kinds of special hacks. In this case, they drive the enable-dio pin high very early so you don't have to press the button that long.

[stanelie]

Ok, I will see if I can figure out how to build my custom firmware integrating pimoroni's patches.

For context, I am building a ebook reader. It needs to start fast when you pick it up to read some more pages. The Micropython gives me that, but I lose the ability to put books on the ereader by just connecting it to a computer with USB.

It turns out it's more then 2 seconds : when I hold down a button, it starts to blink the led (not RGB), for about 2 seconds, and I have to keep holding it for 2-3 more seconds so it loads my code.py. If I release too soon, it doesn't "boot" my code. So, kind of a pain.

Is all this documented somewhere? What happens when a user holds a button on this device? How long it takes for stuff to happen?

Thanks again for the help!

[bablokb]

It turns out it's more then 2 seconds : when I hold down a button, it starts to blink the led (not RGB), for about 2 seconds, and I have to keep holding it for 2-3 more seconds so it loads my code.py. If I release too soon, it doesn't "boot" my code. So, kind of a pain.

I cannot confirm this. The led blinks for exactly one second. I am using the Badger/Badger2040 in one of my projects, see https://github.com/bablokb/circuitpython-clock. I am using the buttons for special actions like "force update time". It is important to check the buttons very early in your code.

If you build your own firmware, be sure to set CIRCUITPY_SKIP_SAFE_MODE_WAIT = 1. You can also add various other tweaks that speed up CP start, but you have to look into the source code, since this is not documented otherwise.

You will most certainly also want to revert PR #8075. This PR increases contrast at the expense of a far longer update time, something you don't want to have for an ebook reader (and it also drains your battery faster).

[stanelie]

I have another issue : I save the status of my ebook progress just before going to sleep with board.ENABLE_DIO.value = False. However, I often find the save did not happen correctly, even if I issued a "os.sync()" before the enable_dio = false.

Is there something I am missing? Or doing wrong? Or forgot to do?

Thanks again!