Current consumption

RE: Current consumption

Simonr — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 08:36:09 GMT

These are just calls that check for idle_state_handle I think, and won't be anything to worry about. I'm sure you do see the change in avg. current consumption with and without idle_state_handle though.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: Current consumption

kb2423 — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 13:32:55 GMT

Thank you so much for your effort.

When you comment out idle_state_handle function in those examples, lines in your pictures will become more stable. As I said before I was working on ble_app_blinky example before, and there ware no spikes with or without power management functions.

This pictures from fresh SDK v15.0.0

for ble_app_hrs_rscs_relay

with idle_state_handle function,

without idle_state_handle function.

for ble_app_blinky

with idle_state_handle function,

without idle_state_handle function.

As you see there is no change in ble_app_blinky but there are changes in ble_app_hrs_rscs_relay example that's why I thought those spikes are unexpected. Thank you.

RE: Current consumption

Simonr — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 11:57:13 GMT

I've tested the ble_app_hrs_rscs_relay example and measured the current using the PPK and the Power Profiler application in nRFConnect for desktop. All tests were made with the same nRF52832 DK and the same PPK. Here are my results:

ble_app_hrs_rscs_relay SDK v15.0.0

As you can see, there are no unexpected spikes here.

ble_app_hrs_rscs_relay SDK v14.2.0

No unexpected spikes here.

ble_app_hrs_rscs_relay SDK v15.2.0

All three are very similar, with no unexpected spikes.

Could you please specify which unmodified example you are seeing these spikes in? I would like you to delete your SDK v15.0 and try downloading a "fresh" one from our Infocenter. Please see if you still experience these unexpected current spikes.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: Current consumption

kb2423 — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 08:46:31 GMT

There are misunderstandings because of my wording. Last four pictures are not from my project. They are from SDK 15.0's and 14.2's base example(ble_app_hrs_rscs_relay). If I comment out sd_app_wait() function in base example there are no spikes, if I don't do any changes spikes appear. Then I tried this in ble_app_blinky example without any changes(code still calls sd_app_wait() function) and there were no spikes(I didn't put here any pictures for it).

So I saw that if I download the untouched version of SDK 15.0 or SDK 14.2 , then run projects ble_app_hrs_rscs_relay and ble_app_blinky without any changes. Relay example has spikes and blinky example hasn't. My old project was built on blinky example and new example is built on relay example, that's why I started to see those spikes. Can you check those examples? If you say those spikes are unexpected then I can take your advice to fix it, if those are expected then it's okay for me too. Thank you.

RE: Current consumption

Simonr — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 07:21:05 GMT

There are a few changes between the SDKs, so there's just a matter of finding what change is causing these spikes when combined with your project. Could you please upload the SDK15.0 version of your project with instructions on how to recreate this, so I can have a closer look? I can set the case to private if you don't want to share your project with the rest of the community. This way the case will be treated with confidentiality, and only Nordic engineers will be able to see the case. Just say the word!

Best regards,

Simon

RE: Current consumption

kb2423 — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 14:24:36 GMT

I did some measurements with sdk 14.2, and result are same.

Here is with sd_app_evt_wait() function

and this one has no sd_app_evt_wait() function

I did same thing for blinky examples in sdk 14.2 and 15.0, and there were no spikes with sd_app_evt_wait() function and without sd_app_evt_wait() function. So I assume those spikes don't appear because of me. Thank you for your replies.

RE: Current consumption

kb2423 — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 12:34:39 GMT

When I comment out stateMachineRun() spikes still appear. In the my last comment last two pictures are from sdk 15.0 's original example. Same thing happen in there, if I comment out idle_state_handle() function in the original example those spikes are gone. Second and third pictures from sdk 15.0 ble_app_hrs_rscs_relay example. There are spikes in the original example too. I will try to run same example on sdk 14.2 and measure current consumption, then I will post here.

RE: Current consumption

Simonr — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 12:19:01 GMT

Thanks for the updated pictures. These spikes are reminiscent of the CPU interrupting the SoftDevice and making it check something. I'm guessing this is the stateMachineRun() function processing data or something. Do the spikes still appear if you comment out stateMachineRun()?

Best regards,

Simon

RE: Current consumption

kb2423 — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 08:19:09 GMT

This is my app, sorry for the resolution of older one.

This is from ble_app_hrs_rscs_relay example, its both scanning and advertising. I build my app by modifying this example.

TThis what when I comment out sd_app_evt_wait() function, actually it is idle_state_handle() function but it calls sd_app_evt_wait() inside it.

RE: Current consumption

Simonr — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 06:59:37 GMT

Thank you for clarifying. Could you try measuring the current of any of our SDK examples that are using sd_app_evt_wait(), in order to see if the spikes appear there as well? Also, are you able to upload some higher resolution screenshots of the top picture (the one with spikes), as I'm not able to see any details on that one.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: Current consumption

kb2423 — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 13:41:40 GMT

  stateMachineRun();
    SEGGER_RTT_printf(0,"?");
    sd_app_evt_wait();
    SEGGER_RTT_printf(0,".");

I added this to see sd_app_evt_wait() is reached or not and result is like that

Red areas happen when 2.4 seconds completed, so program is running as expected. Also sd_app_evt_wait() is working, it decreases current consumption 12 mAh to 6 mAh, only those spikes appear.

RE: Current consumption

Simonr — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 12:22:15 GMT

Have you tried stepping through your code when debugging in order to see what exactly happens here? You should set a breakpoint just before stateMachineRun() and make sure sd_app_evt_wait() ever gets there, and what happens after. I have a suspicion, that either sd_app_evt_wait() is never reached, or that sd_app_evt_wait() doesn't last very long, as it really just waits for an event as well.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: Current consumption

kb2423 — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 10:46:00 GMT

I am using SoftDevice in the application.

stateMachineRun() runs some tasks in order. It mostly runs task that scans for 2.4 seconds, then stops scanning, processes scan results, starts scanning again , starts advertising to advertise processed data(at the time which is not in scan window). It calls a bool function and that function always returns false until 2.4 seconds completed. I couldn't explain well, I hope you can understand me. Can calling a function continuously cause this?

RE: Current consumption

Simonr — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 08:54:34 GMT

Ok, thank you for clarifying!

What does the stateMachineRun() function do? If you're just scanning/advertising, I guess the radio is still active in your application. Also, do you use the SoftDevice in this application? If not, sd_app_evt_wait() and other sd function won't work, which might be why you're seeing these spikes.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: Current consumption

kb2423 — Tue, 20 Aug 2019 08:41:14 GMT

Hi, thank you for the reply.

No, those projects are totally different, sorry for misrepresentation. I talked about project on sdk 14.2 because when I use sd_app_evt_wait function there were no spikes. Now I am using same function in totally different project on sdk 15.0 and that spikes happened. Those two pictures from project on sdk 15.0, if I dont use sd_app_evt_wait() --> no spikes, if I use sd_app_evt_wait() --> spikes.

Also I tried this:

__WFE();
__SEV();
__WFE();

Like this it has spikes.

__WFE();
__SEV();
//__WFE();

If I comment out last __WFE(); it doesnt have spikes.

This is my for in the main.c

for (;;) 
  {
    if (isWorkingIntervalFunc() == true && oneShotFlag1 == false) {
      goToWorkingState();
      oneShotFlag1 = true;
      oneShotFlag2 = false;
    } else if (isWorkingIntervalFunc() == false && oneShotFlag2 == false) {
      oneShotFlag1 = false;
      oneShotFlag2 = true;
      goToSleepState();

    } else {
    }
    stateMachineRun();

    sd_app_evt_wait();
  }

I dont know which peripheral is still running. I dont use uart, gpio, or others. I only do scannning and advertising.

Thanks.

RE: Current consumption

Simonr — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 12:48:47 GMT

Is this on a project you've migrated from the SDK v.14.2 to v.15.0? In that case, you should check out the migration guide to see that you did all of the required steps. It seems your device is not going to sleep properly, so you probably have some peripherals still running. Can you show me a snippet of your code on how you go to sleep/uninitialize your peripherals? Also, please keep in mind that you should refer to the compatibility matrix, to see that you use the correct SDK and Softdevice versions with the correct chip.

Best regards,

Simon