Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Einar Thorsrud — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 15:10:20 GMT

Hi Hjalmar,

The reason for the high ide current consumption is that the driver never stops the RNG. When I test on my end, I get the expected idle current consumption by stopping the RNG like this:

NRF_RNG->TASKS_STOP = 1;

The driver does not have any implementation for doing this after nrf_802154_sleep_if_idle() / nrf_802154_request_sleep(). Moreover, in the driver implemenation there is a nrf_802154_random_deinit() that is called from nrf_802154_deinit(), but this is empty. If you add the above line here, you should get the expected sleep current after a call to nrf_802154_deinit().

I am still trying to find out why this is not handled properly in the driver, but this is quite old code. In any case, stopping the RNG and re-starting it should solv the issue.

Einar

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Einar Thorsrud — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 13:29:45 GMT

Hi Hjalmar,

I will look into it and get back to you within a few days.

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Hjalmar — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 11:37:50 GMT

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vjphzud3za4pa1r/sw_svea.zip?dl=0

I have copied the entire project, note that I have changed the nrf_pwe_mgmt_run to include a nrfx_clock_hf_clk_stop();.

I also included everything, but I have stripped down main to a bare minimum, Here I get about 2-4 uA consumption if I don't call

SendRadioTest();
if I do, I get 400 uA.

It's messy but it should be very clear what functions I call. it's 5 function calls in total.

cheers

Hjalmar

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Einar Thorsrud — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 10:27:34 GMT

Hi,

Calling nrf_802154_sleep() should be enough to put the radio in a state where it does not consume significant power. 400 uA indicate that the HF clock is still running for some reason.

Can you upload your test project here (includign the .c file, CMakeLists.txt and prj.conf) so that I get a full overview and can test the same setup on my end?

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Hjalmar — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 15:32:09 GMT

OK; pinging up again:

I've moved over to the new SDK and using the below lines to start pushing data.

If I don't call the SendRadioFrame() function it's 4 uA power consumption, if I call it, it draws 400 uA after that call.

How do I deep sleep this new library?

static uint8_t first = 1;

void SendRadioFrame(void){

if(first){

nrf_802154_init();

nrf_802154_channel_set(15);

first = 0;

}

nrf_802154_transmit_raw((uint8_t*)&refframe,0));

for(int i = 0;i<100000;i++){

asm("nop;");

}

RadioTxFrame.sequence++;

security_frame_counter++;

nrf_802154_sleep();

}

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Einar Thorsrud — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 08:22:21 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Hjalmar"]Is there really no documentation available on this lib and is there really no proper deep sleep feature? Seems very strange since the lib is pretty much useless without one.[/quote]

That is correct. This library our very first SW support for 802.15.4 for prototyping etc, but it is not recomended for use. It has a limited feature set (like no support for sleep as you have found), and is only provided in binary form so you cannot modify it.

You do not need to migrate to the nRF Connect SDK, but I would advice you to not use this library. Instead, you can take a look at the nRF IEEE 802.15.4 radio driver. This is now only developed for the nRF Connect SDK (and part of nrfxlib), but up to version 1.10 it was a separate repository that was included and used in the nRF5 SDK for Thread and Zigbee. You can find the API documentation here.

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Hjalmar — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 20:37:34 GMT

Just for clarification, we have a lot of code already running in this project with all peripherals, bootloaders, fallback bootloaders etc going so moving away from sdk 17 is really not an option

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Hjalmar — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 20:36:19 GMT

Hi, waking this thread again since Thomas Holmberg promised to push this a bit further. After I’ve done the reset ala above, I can’t for my life get any radio tx again. The only way is a nvic_reset or a POR.
Is there really no documentation available on this lib and is there really no proper deep sleep feature? Seems very strange since the lib is pretty much useless without one.

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Einar Thorsrud — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 09:55:09 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Hjalmar"]Yes it will bring everything down to 4 uA, but then I can't start transmitting again.[/quote]

I see, that makes sense without doing re-initialization.

[quote user="Hjalmar"]Also, the question he asks in the very bottom is very interesting, where can I find information of the timer->power register, (offset 0xffc) There is nothing in the PS about this reg at all?[/quote]

This is an undocumented register (there are many registers that are undocumented for various reasons).

[quote user="Hjalmar"]Can I assume it's as per other modules (ie it's just 0 or 1, and after I've written 0 to it, I need to reinitiate it all again?[/quote]

This specific register only take 1 or 0. It will effectively reset the readio peripheral, so everything needs to be re-initialized.

[quote user="Hjalmar"]Does that mean I need to call sys_init() and then set the entire thing up every time I want to send a message?
is there really no sleep / wake in the library somewhere? Since I have no source code I have no idea of where to look.[/quote]

That seems to be the case. This is an old library that was made externally and that is very rarely used, so there may be details there I am not aware of. Unless you have a particular strong reason for using this library and can live with the limitations, it may make more sense to use somethign else (like the nRF IEEE 802.15.4 radio driver in the nRF5 SDK or probably better, the nRF Connect SDK, which is the SDK that is currently under active development).

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Hjalmar — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 09:32:39 GMT

Hi,
no, unfortunately that doesn't help me.
Yes it will bring everything down to 4 uA, but then I can't start transmitting again.

Also, the question he asks in the very bottom is very interesting, where can I find information of the timer->power register, (offset 0xffc) There is nothing in the PS about this reg at all? (at least not under the timer section) Can I assume it's as per other modules (ie it's just 0 or 1, and after I've written 0 to it, I need to reinitiate it all again?
Does that mean I need to call sys_init() and then set the entire thing up every time I want to send a message?
is there really no sleep / wake in the library somewhere? Since I have no source code I have no idea of where to look.

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Einar Thorsrud — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 07:54:02 GMT

Hi Hjalmar,

I see. It is not a much used library so I had not come across this before, but there is an old post about this here. Does that help?

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Hjalmar — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 15:49:10 GMT

Hi, yes I't the MAC lib that needs the fsm to comunicate with (as far as I understand, the only sample I've found is the wireless uart, and I can't find any more documentation on HOW to use it, only the normal very unhelpful this is the API, guess how to use it yourself docs).
as I said, when I kill the hf clock, the power consumption drops, but then when I wake up again, the MAC lib won't give me any error codes but just stops sending out anything on the radio.
are there any other things I need to set in the mac/phy library to be able to pause the hclk and continue as soon as hclk comes along?

RE: Nrf 802.15.4 lib power consumption in sleep

Einar Thorsrud — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 12:27:46 GMT

Hi Hjalmar,

Which 802.15.4 library is this? Is it the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC library or some other? And how are you using it? The current consumption you see matches what I would expect with the HF clock running, so it seems you are missing some clean-up before entering sleep, that causes some resources active (coould in principle be anything that enables the HF clock).

Einar