wifi.setmode(wifi.NULLMODE) does not turn off WiFi

[joysfera]

Expected behavior

With WiFi turned off the ESP8266 should require less power (12 mA instead of 70 mA).

Actual behavior

The measured current stays the same (still 70 mA) after calling wifi.setmode(wifi.NULLMODE). I suspect the WiFi was not turned off.

Test code

wifi.setmode(wifi.NULLMODE)

NodeMCU version

Lua 5.1.4 on SDK 1.5.4.1(39cb9a32)

Hardware

Plain ESP8266.

BTW

There's a workaround for turning off WiFi by falling into dsleep(): node.dsleep(1, 4)
This is rather inconvenient, though, as it requires GPIO16 to be wired to RST and it also resets the whole chip so your Lua program gets interrupted and starts again. It would be better if the wifi.setmode() actually worked as advertised and turned off WiFi without rebooting the whole chip.
Please note that this could be a limitation of SDK or even the hardware itself. I have yet to check that.

[dnc40085]

This is not a bug. Auto sleep in null mode is not default SDK functionality, PR #1231 will add this functionality once I can work out the kinks, which is soon I hope.

[joysfera]

@dnc40085 thank you, looking forward for PR #1231

[dnc40085]

@joysfera @marcelstoer Here is a PR to add this functionality