Meshtastic Power Settings Reference

The Power configuration section in Meshtastic controls sleep modes, charge management, and power-related behavior. These settings are critical for battery and solar-powered deployments.

Accessing Power Settings

In the app: Radio Config → Power
Via CLI: meshtastic --get power

Is Power Saving Enabled

meshtastic --set power.is_power_saving true

When enabled, the node reduces power consumption by putting the CPU into light sleep between receive windows. In light sleep the CPU is suspended but the LoRa radio stays on, so the node can still hear and respond to traffic. This is appropriate for CLIENT role nodes that send and receive messages but want longer battery life.

For the ROUTER role, power.is_power_saving is force-enabled automatically (on ESP32) and cannot be turned off — you do not set it manually. Even with power saving on, the LoRa radio remains in standby and wakes on incoming packets, so the node continues to relay; light sleep (radio standby) does not prevent relaying. REPEATER is deprecated as of firmware 2.7.11; for infrastructure prefer ROUTER (or ROUTER_LATE).

On Battery Discharge Values

These settings affect how the node reports battery state-of-charge from measured voltage. The defaults work for LiPo batteries; the ADC multiplier may need adjustment for LiFePO4 or for boards whose voltage divider reads inaccurately:

Meshtastic does not provide a generic “shut down after N seconds at a critical-voltage threshold” key. (The firmware option power.on_battery_shutdown_after_secs shuts the device down after external power is lost for N seconds — it is a power-loss timer, not a low-voltage cutoff — and defaults to 0 = disabled.) For low-battery protection rely on the firmware’s built-in low-battery handling rather than a fabricated voltage-cutoff timer.

Sleep Configuration

For ESP32-based nodes, Meshtastic uses light sleep between activity to reduce power consumption. Note that the older super-deep-sleep keys (power.sds_secs and power.mesh_sds_timeout_secs) have been removed/deprecated and are no longer part of the current, documented power config — do not rely on them.

# Enable power saving (CLIENT nodes; ROUTER force-enables it automatically)
meshtastic --set power.is_power_saving true

# Light sleep interval. A value of 0 means the firmware default (5 minutes).
meshtastic --set power.ls_secs 0

# Minimum wake time - stay awake at least this long after waking
meshtastic --set power.min_wake_secs 10

Screen and BT Power

# Screen timeout (0 = always off)
meshtastic --set display.screen_on_secs 30

# Bluetooth enable/disable
meshtastic --set bluetooth.enabled true

# BLE pairing mode (RANDOM_PIN, FIXED_PIN, or NO_PIN)
meshtastic --set bluetooth.mode RANDOM_PIN

Use RANDOM_PIN (the secure default) unless you have a specific reason not to. Setting NO_PIN disables BLE pairing security and lets any nearby device connect without a PIN — only use it on physically secured nodes. (These Bluetooth options live under bluetooth.*, not the Power config, but are included here because they affect power draw.)

Power Consumption by Role

Meshtastic does not publish per-board current-draw figures; actual milliamp draw is highly board-, display-, and firmware-dependent. The official device-role table describes power qualitatively (Regular / Low / High):

Peripherals add to whatever the role draws: an OLED/TFT display and WiFi both materially increase ESP32 power (WiFi is ESP32-only and is not available on nRF52). For exact numbers, measure your specific board or consult its datasheet rather than relying on generic figures.

Practical Power Optimization Checklist

• Set role correctly: CLIENT for personal nodes (enable power saving for longer battery life); ROUTER for fixed infrastructure (power saving is automatic)
• Set screen timeout to 30 seconds or disable (screen_on_secs 0)
• On ESP32, note that enabling WiFi disables Bluetooth (the WiFi setting takes precedence)
• Set position broadcast to 30+ minutes for fixed nodes
• Set telemetry broadcast interval up (the device telemetry default is 1800 s / 30 min)
• Reduce TX power to the minimum needed for coverage. For the legal transmit-power ceiling (US/Canada: 1 W / 30 dBm conducted, with EIRP limits for high-gain antennas), see the LoRa Settings Reference.
• Use nRF52840 hardware over ESP32 for substantially better battery life on the same battery