Power Profiler Kit II issues after update

RE: Power Profiler Kit II issues after update

mcu8484 — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 17:01:55 GMT

I am fine with old version for now. I only upgraded because the release notes mentioned a fix for deteriorating performance for high sampling rates which looks like something that I have seen but not a critical issue at this point.

RE: Power Profiler Kit II issues after update

Simonr — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 12:50:32 GMT

Hmm, that could be it. Your setup seems to be correct, so I don't know what else there could be. Are you fine with using the older version for now? I don't think a quick fix will be available any time soon unfortunately.

Best regards;
Simon

RE: Power Profiler Kit II issues after update

mcu8484 — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 22:42:45 GMT

Thanks for the info. I downgraded back to v4.1.2 and everything looks normal again. Here is a photo of the setup in source meter mode. Nothing unusual as far as I know. Not sure how much it matters but there is DC-DC converter on the board that switches up to 2MHz. I imagine that may cause quite a bit of high frequency current spikes confusing the new SW version?

RE: Power Profiler Kit II issues after update

Simonr — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 08:03:21 GMT

Thank you for letting me know. Not a dumb question at all, as it is a bit hidden. You can roll back the version by entering the dropdown menu for the app in the nRF Connect for Desktop launcher and select uninstall. After uninstalling you can "install other version" to choose an older one.

I tested this briefly on my end today with an nRF52840 DK running a BLE central with the Nordic UART service and saw very similar current draws on both v4.1.x and v4.2.0 of the Power Profiler app both in Ampere meter mode and Source meter mode. Can you upload a photo of how you've connected the PPK to your DUT, and what exactly is the DUT you're measuring current consumption on.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: Power Profiler Kit II issues after update

mcu8484 — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 17:02:14 GMT

Thank you for the response. It's a custom board and I did try 10ksps and got only marginally better results. This might be a dumb question but how do I rollback to previous version? The user manual doesn't seem have such info.

RE: Power Profiler Kit II issues after update

Simonr — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 13:28:01 GMT

Do you also see the same measurement errors when lowering the sampling rate? Do you also see the same difference in measurements if using a DK as the DUT, or just your custom board? I will try to reproduce this and report it internally, but in the meantime you can try rolling back to the previous version.

In case this is phantom spikes due to the level shifters on the PPK2 switching a lot. You can also open the advances settings on the Power Profiler app with ctrl+shift+alt+A to try and tweak the voltage spikes parameter to mitigate this. The simpler fix if that's the case will be to just use the lower sampling rate.

Best regards,

Simon