NRF9160 High current consumption eDRX idle.

[lumdeveloper]

Hi!

I'm evaluating NRF9160 DK board and have faced current consumption problems. My device keeps consuming over 2mA while in eDRX idle.

eDRX cycle length seems to be OK, but I wonder what could cause idle power spiking? If I'm not wrong I should get low as ~10uA in eDRX idle or am I completely wrong?

I'm quite new with NRF91 and Zephyr so please ask any additional questions. I'm out of ideas what to try next. Do you have any ideas where my problem might be?

Hardware:

Externally supplied NRF9160 DK v1.1.3

USB-powered, I have also tried 3.6V lithium battery. I have pictures of both scenarios.

Nordic Power Profiler Kit 2

Software

I have tried AWS MQTT example and Nordic Cellular monitor I face the same issue.

The only addition to AWS MQTT example was the correct endpoint and EDRX config:

CONFIG_LTE_EDRX_REQ=y

CONFIG_LTE_EDRX_REQ_VALUE_LTE_M="0010"

Additional:

I can confirm that my carrier lets me use eDRX at least that is what the Cellular monitor is reporting.

I have tried  NCSDK-10106: "Elevated current consumption when using applications without Modem library on nRF9160ications that do not enable Modem library on nRF9160 with build code B1A, current consumption will stay at 3 mA when in sleep" with no luck.

 

picture (1) Cellular monitor view

picture (2) zoomed out while powered via USB while running Cellular monitor.

picture (3) image shows USB-powered current consumption while running Cellular monitor.

Picture (4) shows overview while running AWS MQTT example and is using lithium battery. eDRX period seems to match.

Picture (5) Shows zoomed in power consumption running AWS MQTT example and using lithium battery.

[Didrik Rokhaug]

Hi,

Is the UART running?

If so, can you try to disable it with CONFIG_SERIAL=n?

Best regards,

Didrik

[lumdeveloper]

Thanks for pointing that out, I have indeed tried to set:

CONFIG_LOG=n

CONFIG_SERIAL=n

 

[Didrik Rokhaug]

lumdeveloper said:

I have indeed tried to set

And that didn't help with the power consumption I assume?

I forgot to point out that if you have modem tracing enabled, you must disable that as well with CONFIG_NRF_MODEM_LIB_TRACE=n.

[lumdeveloper]

Unfortunately no, I tried all the following related to logging and tracing:

CONFIG_LOG=n

CONFIG_NRF_MODEM_LIB_TRACE=n

CONFIG_NRF_MODEM_LIB_TRACE_BACKEND_UART=n

CONFIG_NRF_MODEM_LIB_TRACE_BACKEND_UART_ZEPHYR=n

CONFIG_SERIAL=n

CONFIG_UART_ASYNC_API=n

CONFIG_UART_1_ASYNC=n

Maybe I have to think way to somehow separate modem CPU and application CPU consumption to make sure it is modem drawing the current. I just don't know a good way just yet. I continue reading and wait for further responses. Thank you anyway.

[lumdeveloper]

So it was a configuration error and these configs are the solution. It seems that I had failed to configure it correctly on mcuboot + my config were overwritten by ns.conf. I located the wrong configs from combined .conf file. Now my power consumption is all good. Thank you.