How to set Transmit Power of my Advertisement Packet in nRF Connect SDK 2.5.1

[Sri1998]

Hello,

I want to set the transmitting power of the advertising packet. How can I set the TX power?

I am using nRF Connect SDK 2.5.1 in Visual Studio Code.

Regards,

Sri

[runsiv]

Hi

You can change the TX power with the following Kconfigs  CONFIG_BT_CTLR_TX_PWR_xx or  CONFIG_BT_CTLR_TX_PWR_ANTENNA. 

Regards

Runar

[Sri1998]

Hi, I have used the CONFIG_BT_CTLR_TX_PWR_xx for power setting. I have done a current consumption test to confirm the change in output power. I found a peculiar result for negative power settings, there are multiple current consumption peaks. For each advertisement taking different current. 

My Observations:

Tx Power	Tx - Peak	Tx - Avg	Idle
8dBm	28.62mA	15.65mA	776uA
4dBm	19.59mA	12.38mA	774uA
0dBm	13.71mA	8.2mA	774uA
-4dBm	14.61mA	6.91mA	774uA	8.48mA	6.55mA	Multiple amplitude peaks - unknown reason
-8dBm	14.47mA	6.53mA	774uA	8.36mA	6mA	Multiple amplitude peaks - unknown reason
-12dBm	Skipped
-16dBm
-20dBm	14.75mA	5.48mA	774uA	9.31mA	4.92mA	Multiple amplitude peaks - unknown reason

So is this the expected behavior or is there a issue? 

I want to reduce my Tx Current consumption. I  read that if I enable DC/DC it will reduce the current. How do I enable it?

I also want to put my device to sleep after stopping advertisement and in between advertisement to save power. How do it do that?

TIA 

Sri

[runsiv]

Hi Sri

You can see here what I expect in terms of current draw when using the radio. Overall the idle current is way to high so i expect you don't have things down when not transmitting. 

Have you followed the setup from here when you measured your power? Could you also post your application?

Regards

Runar

[Sri1998]

I have custom board. So cant follow the setup from the reference but followed the setup given in PPK user guide. I want to change the Power from LDO to DCDC mode. Can you help me with that? How should I configure the code?

I am using the below code from nRF Academy

/*
 * Copyright (c) 2023 Nordic Semiconductor ASA
 *
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Nordic-5-Clause
 */

#include <zephyr/kernel.h>
#include <zephyr/logging/log.h>
/* STEP 3 - Include the header file of the Bluetooth LE stack */
#include <zephyr/bluetooth/bluetooth.h>
#include <zephyr/bluetooth/gap.h>

#include <dk_buttons_and_leds.h>

LOG_MODULE_REGISTER(Lesson2_Exercise1, LOG_LEVEL_INF);

#define DEVICE_NAME CONFIG_BT_DEVICE_NAME
#define DEVICE_NAME_LEN (sizeof(DEVICE_NAME) - 1)

#define RUN_STATUS_LED DK_LED1
#define RUN_LED_BLINK_INTERVAL 1000

/* STEP 4.1.1 - Declare the advertising packet */
static const struct bt_data ad[] = {
	/* STEP 4.1.2 - Set the advertising flags */
	BT_DATA_BYTES(BT_DATA_FLAGS, BT_LE_AD_NO_BREDR),
	/* STEP 4.1.3 - Set the advertising packet data  */
	BT_DATA(BT_DATA_NAME_COMPLETE, DEVICE_NAME, DEVICE_NAME_LEN),

};

/* STEP 4.2.2 - Declare the URL data to include in the scan response */
static unsigned char url_data[] = { 0x17, '/', '/', 'a', 'c', 'a', 'd', 'e', 'm',
				    'y',  '.', 'n', 'o', 'r', 'd', 'i', 'c', 's',
				    'e',  'm', 'i', '.', 'c', 'o', 'm' };

/* STEP 4.2.1 - Declare the scan response packet */
static const struct bt_data sd[] = {
	/* 4.2.3 Include the URL data in the scan response packet */
	BT_DATA(BT_DATA_URI, url_data, sizeof(url_data)),
};

int main(void)
{
	int blink_status = 0;
	int err;

	LOG_INF("Starting Lesson 2 - Exercise 1 \n");

	err = dk_leds_init();
	if (err) {
		LOG_ERR("LEDs init failed (err %d)\n", err);
		return -1;
	}
	/* STEP 5 - Enable the Bluetooth LE stack */
	err = bt_enable(NULL);
	if (err) {
		LOG_ERR("Bluetooth init failed (err %d)\n", err);
		return -1;
	}

	LOG_INF("Bluetooth initialized\n");

	/* STEP 6 - Start advertising */
	err = bt_le_adv_start(BT_LE_ADV_NCONN, ad, ARRAY_SIZE(ad), sd, ARRAY_SIZE(sd));
	if (err) {
		LOG_ERR("Advertising failed to start (err %d)\n", err);
		return -1;
	}

	LOG_INF("Advertising successfully started\n");

	for (;;) {
		dk_set_led(RUN_STATUS_LED, (++blink_status) % 2);
		k_sleep(K_MSEC(RUN_LED_BLINK_INTERVAL));
	}
}

How can I put my nRF52833 in "ION_RAMOFF_EVENT" or "ION_RAMOFF_RTC". I need it to sleep for 5 mins and wake up

[runsiv]

Using the DCDC should be as easy as using the Kconfig option CONFIG_SOC_DCDC_NRF52X=y

What is the usecase for your application? I would recommend reading Einars reply https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/99280/sleep-modes-system-on-example-for-nrf52833-with-nrf-connect-sdk-2-3-0?ReplySortBy=CreatedDate&ReplySortOrder=Ascending regarding power modes 

Regards

Runar

[Sri1998]

Use case is to make a BLE beacon.

[Sri1998]

If I add CONFIG_SOC_DCDC_NRF52X=y in the kconfig file then it is saying 

error: SOC_DCDC_NRF52X (defined at soc/arm/nordic_nrf\nrf52\Kconfig.soc:85) is assigned in a
configuration file, but is not directly user-configurable (has no prompt). It gets its value
indirectly from other symbols. See
http://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/kconfig.html#CONFIG_SOC_DCDC_NRF52X and/or look up
SOC_DCDC_NRF52X in the menuconfig/guiconfig interface. The Application Development Primer, Setting
Configuration Values, and Kconfig - Tips and Best Practices sections of the manual might be helpful
too.

So any other way to enable the DCDC mode?

[runsiv]

Sorry, I gave the wrong link. You need CONFIG_BOARD_ENABLE_DCDC=y

Regards

Runar