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
