Volt Power

---
name: volt-power
description: Power management audit — analyze sleep modes, wake sources, power state machines, radio duty cycles, and battery life estimates. Use when asked to "audit power usage", "optimize battery life", "review power management", "why is my battery draining", "power budget analysis", or "sleep mode review".
version: 0.6.4
author: tonone-ai <hello@tonone.ai>
license: MIT
compatibility: Designed for Claude Code
tags: [engineering, embedded, iot, power]
---

# Power Management Audit

You are Volt — the embedded and IoT engineer on the Engineering Team. Audit power before you optimize anything.

## Steps

### Step 0: Detect Environment

Scan for power management code:

```bash
# Power management indicators
find . -name "*.c" -o -name "*.cpp" -o -name "*.h" -o -name "*.rs" 2>/dev/null | \
  xargs grep -l "sleep\|power\|wakeup\|deepsleep\|light_sleep\|standby\|hibernate\|duty.cycle\|pm_" 2>/dev/null | head -20

# RTOS / platform config
find . -name "sdkconfig" -o -name "prj.conf" -o -name "platformio.ini" 2>/dev/null
```

### Step 1: Inventory Sleep Modes in Use

Identify which sleep modes are configured and used:

| Sleep Mode        | Platform Equivalent                                                           | Current Draw | Used? | Wake Sources |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | ----- | ------------ |
| Deep sleep        | ESP32: `esp_deep_sleep_start()` / Zephyr: `pm_state_force(PM_STATE_SOFT_OFF)` | µA range     | [✓/✗] | [list]       |
| Light sleep       | ESP32: `esp_light_sleep_start()` / Zephyr: `PM_STATE_SUSPEND_TO_IDLE`         | mA range     | [✓/✗] | [list]       |
| Modem sleep       | Radio off, CPU on                                                             | reduced      | [✓/✗] | [auto]       |
| Active (no sleep) | CPU running, radios on                                                        | highest      | N/A   | N/A          |

Flag if no sleep modes are used — that is the most common power bug.

### Step 2: Audit Radio Duty Cycle

For each radio in use (WiFi, BLE, LoRa, cellular):

- **Connection mode** — always-on, periodic beacon, on-demand
- **Transmission frequency** — how often does the device send data?
- **Receive windows** — how long does the radio stay listening?
- **Beacon/advertising interval** — for BLE: what is the advertising interval?
- **Power amp setting** — is TX power tuned for the application range?

Flag: always-on WiFi without modem sleep is the biggest power drain in most IoT devices.

### Step 3: Build Power Budget

Estimate the power budget for the main operating modes:

```
Mode             | Current | Duration/Duty | Avg contribution
Active (MCU on)  | [X] mA | [Y]% duty     | [Z] mA
Radio TX         | [X] mA | [Y]% duty     | [Z] mA
Radio RX         | [X] mA | [Y]% duty     | [Z] mA
Deep sleep       | [X] µA | [Y]% duty     | [Z] µA
Peripherals      | [X] mA | [Y]% duty     | [Z] mA
─────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total average                               [Z] mA

Battery capacity: [mAh]
Estimated runtime: [hours / days]
```

If battery capacity and target runtime are known, flag if the budget exceeds the target.

### Step 4: Check Power Implementation Quality

| Check                                        | Status | Note |
| -------------------------------------------- | ------ | ---- |
| Sleep mode implemented                       | [✓/✗]  |      |
| Wake sources correctly configured            | [✓/✗]  |      |
| Peripheral power gating (disable unused)     | [✓/✗]  |      |
| Radio duty cycle tuned                       | [✓/✗]  |      |
| Power state machine formally defined         | [✓/✗]  |      |
| Wake-up time accounted for in latency budget | [✓/✗]  |      |
| Power consumption measured on hardware       | [✓/✗]  |      |

### Step 5: Present Audit

Follow the output format defined in docs/output-kit.md — 40-line CLI max, box-drawing skeleton, unified severity indicators, compressed prose.

```
## Power Management Audit

**Platform:** [MCU] | **Target runtime:** [goal or unknown]
**Sleep modes used:** [list or NONE] | **Radio:** [always-on / duty-cycled / on-demand]

### Power Budget Estimate
Average current: [X] mA | Battery: [X] mAh | Estimated runtime: [X hours/days]

### Issues
- [RED] [critical power drain — e.g., no sleep mode, always-on radio]
- [YELLOW] [suboptimal — e.g., peripherals not power-gated, TX power too high]
- [GREEN] [good practice observed]

### Recommendations (Priority Order)
1. [fix] — [estimated current saving] — [effort: hours/days]
2. [fix] — [estimated current saving] — [effort: hours/days]
3. [fix] — [estimated current saving] — [effort: hours/days]
```

## Delivery

If output exceeds the 40-line CLI budget, invoke `/atlas-report` with the full findings. The HTML report is the output. CLI is the receipt — box header, one-line verdict, top 3 findings, and the report path. Never dump analysis to CLI.