PPK2 keeps disconnecting on its own

[ttran]

I've been using PPK2 to test our work for maybe around 3 years.  it's always been steady and stable and can run for several days without problem.  Mostly I'm using the PPK2 as power source so that I can change the voltage and monitor the current draw.  Usually for long term run I'm running on a Ubuntu 20.04 machine.

About half year ago, I upgraded to nrfConnect 4.1.1 which in turn upgraded both the PPK2 firmware and the Power Profiler software (Windows 10), I started noticing that the PPK2 often disconnecting itself from the PC and from the PowerProfiler software and turn off power to our test device completely.  I'm clueless as why the PPK decides to disconnect from the USB host PC. This happens on both Windows and Linux host PC.    On LInux PC the PPK would disconnect itself as often as every half an hour to 1.5 hours.

Any idea / suggestion on how to debug and solve this problem?    Looking at Ubuntu log, it just simply says that device got disconnected (just like when we unplug a USB device)

[Mon Feb  5 23:20:13 2024] usb 1-1: Product: PPK2
[Mon Feb  5 23:20:13 2024] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: Nordic Semiconductor
[Mon Feb  5 23:20:13 2024] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: D6241721B5FB
[Mon Feb  5 23:20:13 2024] cdc_acm 1-1:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
[Tue Feb  6 16:24:23 2024] usb 1-1: USB disconnect, device number 7
[Tue Feb  6 16:24:24 2024] usb 1-1: new full-speed USB device number 8 using xhci_hcd
[Tue Feb  6 16:24:24 2024] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1915, idProduct=c00a, bcdDevice= 1.00
[Tue Feb  6 16:24:24 2024] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[Tue Feb  6 16:24:24 2024] usb 1-1: Product: PPK2
[Tue Feb  6 16:24:24 2024] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: Nordic Semiconductor
[Tue Feb  6 16:24:24 2024] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: D6241721B5FB
[Tue Feb  6 16:24:24 2024] cdc_acm 1-1:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
user@

From the PPK Power Profiler app, this is seen in the log:

14:52:14.790    Using nrfutil-device version: 2.0.3
14:52:14.791    Using nrf-device-lib version: 0.17.3
14:52:14.791    Unable to detect version of nrfjprog DLL.
14:52:14.791    Unable to detect version of JLink.
14:52:14.792    JLink is not installed. Please install JLink from: www.segger.com/.../jlink
14:52:14.841    Device Connected SN:D6241721B5FB
14:52:14.842    Getting serialport options from persistent store D6241721B5FB.pc-nrfconnect-ppk
14:52:18.758    Validating firmware for device with s/n D6241721B5FB
14:52:18.760    Opening device with s/n D6241721B5FB
14:52:18.943    PPK started
14:52:18.943    PPK opened
14:52:53.662    DUT ON
16:24:25.831    Deselecting device
16:24:25.833    Device Disconnected SN:D6241721B5FB
16:24:25.835    PPK closed
16:24:27.003    Device Connected SN:D6241721B5FB
16:24:27.004    Getting serialport options from persistent store D6241721B5FB.pc-nrfconnect-ppk
16:24:27.005    Getting serialport options from persistent store D6241721B5FB.pc-nrfconnect-ppk
16:35:33.924    Validating firmware for device with s/n D6241721B5FB
16:35:33.928    Opening device with s/n D6241721B5FB
16:35:34.135    PPK started
16:35:34.136    PPK opened

The Power Profiler log statement at the time of disconnection is simply "Deselecting device" followed by "Device Disconnected", and "PPK closed"

I also would like to try to flash one of the older firmware to the PPK to see if it's the cause. I use the Programmer in the nrfConnect for Desktop 4.3.0 and select the PPK2 and the firmware here:

https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-nrfconnect-ppk/tree/main/firmware

But then I have no idea what to input into the dialog that asks for "Please select the SoftDevice required by the application firmware".  

Any suggestion?

Thanks so much for any help.

-Thanh

[Menon]

Hello,

Which revision of PPK are you using here?Make sure you are using the latest version of the nRF command line tools  and JLink, Can you try enabling the verbose log and upload the .log file here (Power Profile App-->ABOUT section-->VERBOSE LOGGING, under the support section)? I would also suggest to try another USB cable and port to narrow down the issue.

 

Kind Regards,

Abhijith

[ttran]

Hi Abhijith

Thanks very much for your help. I've gathered some logs for what you suggested. I'm using the PowerProfiler version 4.4.0-beta6 which then updates the firmware inside the PPK. I do not know what version of the nRF command line tools, but it's the nrfConnect version nrfConnect-4.3.0-x86_64.appImage downloaded from Nordict website.  Segger tool version is 7.94i.

Please see some other from attached screenshot

The verbose log of a session that dies after 1 hour 33 mins is also attached. The length of the session varies from 1 hour 30 mins to 1 hour 45 mins. If I don't log the power usage (not clicking on the "Start" button to log the power data then the PPK2 won't get disconnected from the USB.  It would be able to supply power to my device under test for as long as half day. But if I start any logging, then it will die.  Hope you can find some clues from the log.  2024-02-12T22_37_17.072Z-log.txt

By the way, I've had similar disconnects from different PC, different USB ports, different cables. Also another co-worker of mine also similar issues on his PPK2

Thanks

-Thanh

[Menon]

Hello,

I am not sure why this is happening. I didn't get any clues from the logs. All I can think of is a warning about the Jlink version. Can you check if there are multiple JLink versions installed on your PC? If so, please delete them and try to have just one installed. Also, can you check if this works fine with JLink version 7.88? For the nrf command-line version, try the command nrfjprog --version within any terminal window. Please share the PPK2 board revision you are using (you can find this on the white sticker over the PPK kit). Do you have another PPK2 that shows similar behaviour? I am asking to confirm that this is not a hardware issue.

Kind Regards,

Abhijith

[ttran]

Hello

Thanks for your support.

My PPK2 white sticker says:

PCA63100

1.0.1

2021.49

D6241721

Another PPK2, which has a similar sticker but with 2021.25 number, also experiences same disconnection problem with latest software. It runs on a different Linux machine.  A co-worker of mine also uses a PPK on a Windows machine, and his PPK also has similar behavior. So that's 3 PPK2 that I know of that have this problem.  I suspect the firmware in the PPK crashes and causes the disconnection. Is there any pin on the hardware we can monitor to debug?

I'm not able to find nrfjprog in my Linux box.  I'm running the nrfConnect-4.3.0-x86_64.appImage from command line directly (no install that I can see)

I removed the JLink 7.94 and installed the JLink 7.88j so that PowerProfiler software does not complain about different version number, but the disconnection still happens at around 1 hour 32 minutes (pretty consistent for some reasons).  I tried sampling frequency of 10Hz, 100Hz, and of 1000Hz. They all disconnect after about 1 hour 32 mins  to 1 hour 40 mins. They don't disconnect if I don't start the data logging

Thanks

-Thanh

[Menon]

Hello,

Thanks for sharing some more details on this. I have reported this internally to get a better idea of it. I will get back to you as soon as I have an update from the internal team.

 

Kind Regards,

Abhijith