Problems with Power Profiler Kit II

[Pietro Marrone]

Hi to all,

I have a problem and a question regarding the power measurement setup I’m working on.

Regarding the problem, I am trying to measure the power consumption of devices using the PPK2. After connecting the PPK2 to the nRF9161 DK for the first time and then disconnecting it, the nRF9161 DK stops functioning. Specifically, no commands work in the serial terminal, and the Programmer screen shows the message you can see in the attached photo.  

The device only starts working correctly again when reconnected to the PPK2, provided it is used as an Ampere meter with the “Enable Power Output” function on. Could you please advise on how to resolve this issue?

Regarding the power measurement, I wanted to ask about the power shown in the other attached image.

This corresponds to the power read initially by the PPK2 when the nRF9161 DK is on, but no commands have been entered yet. Should this power consumption (oscillating between 31 and 32 mA) be considered solely as the power consumed by the nRF9161 DK, or is there a potential influence from the power profiler device itself on the power consumption of the nRF9161 DK?

Thank you for your assistance, and I wish you a great week ahead.

Best regards,

Pietro

[Pietro Marrone]

I actually didn't understand so well the second part. My goal is to verify the power saving capabilities of the devices when they are used with the DECT NR+ standard, so I wanted to measure the power consumed during an established communication between 2 devices using DECT NR+.

[PaKa]

The suggestion is to break down the problem inot smaller pieces. Know you are getting numbers that you don't know if are correct or not. It could be a HW issue or it could be a SW issue. If you test with a FW with known power consumption then you can see if the HW is working as it should. If that is the case, then you can trust the numbers and if the current is not what you expect, then you know you have a FW issue on your board.

[Pietro Marrone]

Thanks a lot for the suggestion. What about the voltage ‘V’  that powers the device, considering it is connected via a USB cable to my laptop? Is it 3.3V or 5V? 

[PaKa]

My area is the PPK2 so you will need to check the nRF9161 DK documentation for that, or measure the voltage.

[Øyvind]

Hello, 

Can you please provide more information on what you are running on your board? 

The nRF9161DK documentation provides more information on the power supply. 

Kind regards,
Øyvind