Hello,
For expediency I will try to address some of your questions now:
1) I_Idle represents the current consumption when no channels are open and all communication has ceased. I_Base is the minimum current current consumption when any channel is open, representing the current required for the chip during any kind of communications activity, not including the current required for handling messages.
Both I_Idle and I_Base should apply for the use of asynchronous/synchronous interfaces and/or SensRcore, but messaging on either type of interface will require differing amounts of current.
You can find more information in the AN13 Power States Application Note found
here.
The current consumption does seem a little high, were all onboard LED's disabled? Also to keep in mind is that the slave is running two channel searches so the search timeout will be doubled.
2) The scripted version of the code for the SensRcore Demo scripts, which are embedded in the firmware of the processor:
// Demo mode RX configuration
C [90][00][01][F0][01][F0] // set channel 0 outbound data type to digital output on AIO4-IO7, with crossover enabled
C [91][00][00][40][0F][01][00] // set channel 0 inbound data type to digital input on AIO0-AIO3
C [42][00][00][00] // assign channel 0 as receiver
C [51][00][00][00][78][05] // set channel 0 channel ID (wildcard device #, device type 120 "demo", trans type 5 (no shared address, global control byte in use)
C [45][00][48] // assign channel frequency to 2472 MHz
C [43][00][00][20] // set channel 0 message period to 4 Hz
C [4B][00] // open channel 0
// Demo mode TX configuration
C [90][00][01][F0][01][F0] // set channel 0 outbound data type to digital output on AIO4-IO7, with crossover enabled
C [91][00][00][40][0F][01][00] // set channel 0 inbound data type to digital input on AIO0-AIO3
C [42][00][10][00] // assign channel 0 as transmitter
C [65][00][78][05] // set channel 0 channel ID with device # = serial #, device type 120 "demo", trans type 5 (no shared address, global control byte in use)
C [45][00][48] // assign channel frequency to 2472 MHz
C [43][00][00][20] // set channel 0 message period to 4 Hz
C [4B][00] // open channel 0
The PORTSEL pin is used to choose asynchronous/synchronous communication in serial mode, or to choose between the demo/user script data (MEMSEL).
The ANT AT3 Module Datasheet found
here has a chart describing what the pins are designated for in different chip modes.
After a timeout AT3 in SensRcore mode will not attempt to re-search and must be reset to start a new search.
3) Unfortunately there is no explicit documentation for DEVSEL pin setting, there is only the mentioning of sector selection in section 5.3 of the AN06 SensRcore Mode Application Note. However those three DEVSEL pins are mapped to allow you to select sectors 0 through 7 respectively.
4) Current consumption is not affected by a large degree from the TX power, particularly for a slave (RX) device.
Best regards