Failed to configure GNSS

[flau]

Hello,

I have a custom board with an nRF9160 and is running mfw_nrf9160_1.3.5.  The design is ready for production so I thought I will build 10 boards first as a pilot run.  Out of the 10 boards, one is giving me the following error.

W: nrf_modem_gnss_agps_expiry_get() failed, err -13
E: Failed to configure GNSS
I: Location retrieval failed using 'GNSS', trying with 'Cellular' next
%NCELLMEAS: 0,"08452E01","302610","D6DD",80,2325,135,40,15,606912,2325,481,34,2,0,900,310,44,16,24,5255,482,51,18,32

All 9 others work fine.  I tried re-flashing the board a few times, but no luck.  This same error keeps happening.  Does anyone have an idea what is wrong?

Thank you.

[runsiv]

Hi Floyd

I will start looking into your case. Our teams nRF91x is out of office due to training so it might be a bit slower response

Regards

RUnar

[flau]

Thank you, Runar.  We built a number of prototype before these 10 units.  None of them have this problem either.  This is the first time we see error like this.  We definitely can't test every single unit during production to see if this happens.

[flau]

Apologize for my late response.  The application is to collect gyroscope and accelerometer data and send to AWS IoT MQTT server with either a GPS location or cellular location.  The firmware is based on the AWS_IOT example and the LOCATION example.  I have AWS_IOT as a thread, LOCATION as another thread, reading gyro and accelerometer as yet another thread, and finally a house-keeping thread that checks battery, push button, etc.  

We have built at least 10 prototypes before.  No such error has ever happened.  Now we build another 10 pre-production boards.  Nine out of 10 work as expected.  But there is one board showing the error mentioned as soon as the LOCATION thread starts.  AWS_IOT thread has no problem.

Unfortunately, I can't provide a complete error log at this moment.  I will try to capture a log next week when I am back in the office.

Regards,

Floyd

[dejans]

Hi Floyd,

We would need a log to have better insight what might be causing the error. Please provide full log at your earliest convenience.

Best regards,
Dejan

[flau]

How about this?

*** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.2.99-ncs2 ***
I: AT filter enabled with 2 entries.
I: UART check failed: 12. Dropping buffer and retrying.
FOTA version: v1.0.8
mfw_nrf9160_1.3.5
OK

I: 2 Sectors of 4096 bytes
I: alloc wra: 0, fe8
I: data wra: 0, 0
%XSIM: 1
Connecting to LTE...
+CEREG: 2,"D6DD","086F8A0C",7
LTE cell changed: Cell ID: 141527564, Tracking area: 55005
+CSCON: 1
Stop timer
OK
%XTIME: ,"42013000344569","01"
+CEREG: 5,"D6DD","086F8A0C",7,,,"11100000","11100000"
Network registration status: Connected - roaming
Connected to LTE
PSM parameter update: TAU: 3600, Active time: -1
%XTIME: ,"42013000347569","01"
W: nrf_modem_gnss_agps_expiry_get() failed, err -13
Next connection retry in 30 seconds
AWS_IOT_EVT_CONNECTING
E: Failed to configure GNSS
I: Location retrieval failed using 'GNSS', trying with 'Cellular' next
%NCELLMEAS: 0,"086F8A0C","302220","D6DD",528,5145,54,45,10,2691,8627
AWS_IOT_EVT_CONNECTED
AWS_IOT_EVT_READY
AWS_IOT_EVT_PUBACK, ID: 50196
AWS_IOT_EVT_PUBACK, ID: 21871
AWS_IOT_EVT_PUBACK, ID: 40499
+CSCON: 0
*** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.2.99-ncs2 ***
I: AT filter enabled with 2 entries.
I: UART check failed: 12. Dropping buffer and retrying.
FOTA version: v1.0.8
mfw_nrf9160_1.3.5
OK

I: 2 Sectors of 4096 bytes
I: alloc wra: 0, fe8
I: data wra: 0, 0
%XSIM: 1
Connecting to LTE...
+CEREG: 2,"D6DD","086F8A0C",7
LTE cell changed: Cell ID: 141527564, Tracking area: 55005
+CSCON: 1
%XTIME: ,"42013000548469","01"
+CEREG: 5,"D6DD","086F8A0C",7,,,"11100000","11100000"
Network registration status: Connected - roaming
Connected to LTE
PSM parameter update: TAU: 3600, Active time: -1
%XTIME: ,"42013000540569","01"
W: nrf_modem_gnss_agps_expiry_get() failed, err -13
Next connection retry in 30 seconds
AWS_IOT_EVT_CONNECTING
E: Failed to configure GNSS
I: Location retrieval failed using 'GNSS', trying with 'Cellular' next
%NCELLMEAS: 0,"086F8A0C","302220","D6DD",528,5145,54,38,4,6666,6654
AWS_IOT_EVT_CONNECTED
AWS_IOT_EVT_READY
AWS_IOT_EVT_PUBACK, ID: 37682
AWS_IOT_EVT_PUBACK, ID: 51606
AWS_IOT_EVT_PUBACK, ID: 54204

I booted the device twice.  You can see both times the error is the same.

[flau]

Here is the prj.conf.

# General config

CONFIG_NCS_SAMPLES_DEFAULTS=y
CONFIG_REBOOT=y
CONFIG_FPU=y
CONFIG_ASSERT=y
CONFIG_STDOUT_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_I2C=y
CONFIG_GPIO=y
CONFIG_PWM=y
CONFIG_MAIN_THREAD_PRIORITY=7
#CONFIG_PWM_LOG_LEVEL_DBG=y
CONFIG_ENTROPY_GENERATOR=y

# Enable custom AT commands
CONFIG_AT_CUSTOM_CMD=y

# LSM6DSL
CONFIG_SPI=y
CONFIG_SENSOR=y

# NEWLIB C
CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC=y
CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC_FLOAT_PRINTF=y
CONFIG_NEWLIB_LIBC_MIN_REQUIRED_HEAP_SIZE=2048

# Network
CONFIG_NETWORKING=y
CONFIG_NET_NATIVE=n
CONFIG_NET_SOCKETS=y
CONFIG_NET_SOCKETS_OFFLOAD=y

# LTE link control
CONFIG_MODEM_KEY_MGMT=y
CONFIG_LTE_LINK_CONTROL=y
#CONFIG_LTE_LINK_CONTROL_LOG_LEVEL_DBG=y

CONFIG_LTE_NETWORK_MODE_LTE_M_NBIOT_GPS=y
CONFIG_LTE_NETWORK_DEFAULT=y

CONFIG_LTE_MODE_PREFERENCE_AUTO=y

CONFIG_LTE_AUTO_INIT_AND_CONNECT=n
CONFIG_LTE_EDRX_REQ=y

CONFIG_LTE_PSM_REQ_RAT="11100000"

# Modem library
CONFIG_NRF_MODEM_LIB=y

# CONFIG for China Telecom
CONFIG_ZZHC=y
CONFIG_TRUSTED_EXECUTION_NONSECURE=y
CONFIG_FLASH_PAGE_LAYOUT=y
CONFIG_FLASH_MAP=y
CONFIG_MPU_ALLOW_FLASH_WRITE=y
CONFIG_NVS=y
CONFIG_SETTINGS_NVS_SECTOR_COUNT=6
CONFIG_ZZHC_STACK_SIZE=2048
CONFIG_ZZHC_THREAD_PRIO=10

# AT Host
CONFIG_UART_INTERRUPT_DRIVEN=y
CONFIG_AT_HOST_LIBRARY=y

# AWS IoT library
CONFIG_AWS_IOT=y
CONFIG_AWS_IOT_CLIENT_ID_APP=y
CONFIG_AWS_IOT_BROKER_HOST_NAME_APP=y

CONFIG_AWS_IOT_SEC_TAG=13579
CONFIG_AWS_IOT_APP_SUBSCRIPTION_LIST_COUNT=5
CONFIG_AWS_IOT_CLIENT_ID_MAX_LEN=40
CONFIG_AWS_IOT_TOPIC_UPDATE_DELTA_SUBSCRIBE=y
CONFIG_AWS_IOT_LAST_WILL=y
CONFIG_AWS_IOT_TOPIC_GET_ACCEPTED_SUBSCRIBE=y
CONFIG_AWS_IOT_TOPIC_GET_REJECTED_SUBSCRIBE=y
CONFIG_AWS_IOT_AUTO_DEVICE_SHADOW_REQUEST=n
CONFIG_AWS_IOT_PROVISION_CERTIFICATES=y

CONFIG_MQTT_KEEPALIVE=1200
CONFIG_MQTT_CLEAN_SESSION=y

# Date Time library
CONFIG_DATE_TIME=y

# Heap and stacks
CONFIG_MAIN_STACK_SIZE=8192
# Extended memory heap size needed for encoding REST messages to JSON
CONFIG_HEAP_MEM_POOL_SIZE=49152
CONFIG_SYSTEM_WORKQUEUE_STACK_SIZE=8192
# Increase AT monitor heap because %NCELLMEAS notifications can be large
CONFIG_AT_MONITOR_HEAP_SIZE=2048

# MCUBOOT
CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y
CONFIG_MCUBOOT_IMG_MANAGER=y

# DFU Target
CONFIG_DFU_TARGET=y

# Image manager
CONFIG_FLASH=y
CONFIG_IMG_MANAGER=y
CONFIG_IMG_ERASE_PROGRESSIVELY=y

# AWS FOTA
CONFIG_AWS_FOTA=y
CONFIG_FOTA_DOWNLOAD=y
CONFIG_FOTA_DOWNLOAD_PROGRESS_EVT=y
CONFIG_DFU_TARGET=y

# CJSON
CONFIG_CJSON_LIB=y

# Download client (needed by AWS FOTA)
CONFIG_DOWNLOAD_CLIENT=y
CONFIG_DOWNLOAD_CLIENT_HTTP_FRAG_SIZE_1024=y
CONFIG_DOWNLOAD_CLIENT_STACK_SIZE=4096
CONFIG_DOWNLOAD_CLIENT_LOG_LEVEL_INF=y
CONFIG_DOWNLOAD_CLIENT_BUF_SIZE=2300

# Location library
CONFIG_LOCATION=y

# Logging
#CONFIG_LOG=y
#CONFIG_LOG_PRINTK=y
CONFIG_LOG_MODE_IMMEDIATE=n

# nRF Cloud (for A-GPS and cell location)
CONFIG_NRF_CLOUD_REST=y
CONFIG_NRF_CLOUD_AGPS=y
CONFIG_MODEM_INFO=y
CONFIG_MODEM_INFO_ADD_NETWORK=y

# Modem JWT
CONFIG_MODEM_JWT=y

# Multicell location service selection
CONFIG_MULTICELL_LOCATION_SERVICE_NRF_CLOUD=y

CONFIG_MODEM_ANTENNA_GNSS_ONBOARD=y
CONFIG_MODEM_ANTENNA_GNSS_EXTERNAL=n
#CONFIG_MODEM_ANTENNA_AT_MAGPIO="AT%XMAGPIO=1,0,0,3,1,1565,1586,0,1710,2200,0,698,746"
CONFIG_MODEM_ANTENNA_AT_COEX0="AT%XCOEX0=1,1,1565,1586"
CONFIG_TFM_KEY_FILE_S="C:/ncs/v2.3.0/modules/tee/tf-m/trusted-firmware-m/bl2/ext/mcuboot/root-RSA-3072.pem"
CONFIG_TFM_KEY_FILE_NS="C:/ncs/v2.3.0/modules/tee/tf-m/trusted-firmware-m/bl2/ext/mcuboot/root-RSA-3072_1.pem"
CONFIG_NRF_CLOUD_CLIENT_ID_PREFIX="abc-"

[flau]

Now confirmed 2 out of the 10 pre-production boards are showing the same nrf_modem_gnss_agps_expiry_get() failure issue.  The second one was running fine for days before.  Can you tell me exactly what causes the function to fail?  Where can I find this function?  

[dejans]

Hi,

Return value -13 from nrf_modem_gnss_agps_expiry_get() is -NRF_EACCES which according to nrf_modem_gnss.h means "GNSS is not enabled in system or functional mode".

It looks like you might be having problems due to misconfiguration. In your project configuration, you have selected both CONFIG_LTE_NETWORK_MODE_LTE_M_NBIOT_GPS=y and
CONFIG_LTE_NETWORK_DEFAULT=y but these options are mutually exclusive. Only one of them should be selected. Based on the device's behavior the latter one (CONFIG_LTE_NETWORK_DEFAULT=y) gets applied and the system mode stored in modem's NVM is used. You could try to remove CONFIG_LTE_NETWORK_DEFAULT=y from your project configuration so that you only have CONFIG_LTE_NETWORK_MODE_LTE_M_NBIOT_GPS=y which is probably the option which you want to use.

Best regards,
Dejan

[flau]

What I found out last night was that the 2 failed boards have %xsystemmode=1,0,0,0, whereas all good working boards have %xsystemmode=1,1,1,0.  I then manually entered at%xsystemmode=1,1,1,0 on the 2 failed boards and then they both worked now.  My question is why is this happening when all boards are running the same code and same modem firmware?  Do I have to set xsystemmode=1,1,1,0 manually at the beginning of the code? 

[dejans]

Hi,

flau said:

What I found out last night was that the 2 failed boards have %xsystemmode=1,0,0,0, whereas all good working boards have %xsystemmode=1,1,1,0.

flau said:

My question is why is this happening when all boards are running the same code and same modem firmware?  Do I have to set xsystemmode=1,1,1,0 manually at the beginning of the code? 

Looking at %XSYSTEMMODE set command, it might be that the operator has overridden values which are configured. %xsystemmode command is allowed only before activating the modem using the +CFUN=1 command. If the mode needs to be changed, ensure that modem has entered minimum functionality mode +CFUN=0 or flight mode CFUN=4 before doing the change.

Best regards,
Dejan

[flau]

Thanks Dejan.  I think you can close this ticket at this point.  Although it is weird, I will put in a line in the code to check the mode.  If it is not set correctly, then I will issue the xsystemmode command.