nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

Albrecht Markus Schellenberger — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 14:21:45 GMT

Hello Theodor,

could you please provide me with a modem trace for further analysis?

Thanks and regards,

Markus

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

lobaro-theo — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 19:35:02 GMT

Hello,

the issue is still present even in MFW1.3.1. And it happens also with no debugger connected - 100% sure.

We can confirm that power off / on again resolves the issue but a self initiated NVIC reset does not.

For us this issue prevents the usage of the MFW1.3.x version branch at all.

Theo

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

Albrecht Markus Schellenberger — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 07:14:48 GMT

Hello Per,

[quote user="pemar13"]Wether or not I would have issue when not debugging I cannot say yet, but I suggest we leave this issue for now and I will start my own new case if the issue appears when not debugging.[/quote]

Yes, that sounds good to me :-)

[quote user="pemar13"]One related question: is there any command or callback I can use in my application to find out if the restriction is activated?[/quote]

Yes, you can use the %MDMEV AT command to do so, as described in this chapter.

Regards,

Markus

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

pemar13 — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 12:19:41 GMT

Hi again,

Since I'm essentially only running in the debugger at the moment (working on incorporating modem FW1.3.0 and ncs v1.6.1), I can definitely say that the observations reported above were made during debugging. Wether or not I would have issue when not debugging I cannot say yet, but I suggest we leave this issue for now and I will start my own new case if the issue appears when not debugging.

One related question: is there any command or callback I can use in my application to find out if the restriction is activated?

Best regards,
Per

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

Albrecht Markus Schellenberger — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 09:22:11 GMT

Hello Per,

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

[quote user="pemar13"] However, I wondered if the issue I'm seeing could be related to the new reset loop restriction (while testing with the debugger, I may reset the device a lot).[/quote]

This could be a plausible explanation, yes. So you are facing this issue only while using the debugger, then?

Regards,

Markus

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

pemar13 — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 06:22:10 GMT

Hi Marcus,

Hope you had a nice vacation.

As I'm working on other things at the moment, a modem trace will have to wait. However, I wondered if the issue I'm seeing could be related to the new reset loop restriction (while testing with the debugger, I may reset the device a lot).

Best regards,
Per

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

Albrecht Markus Schellenberger — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 09:24:51 GMT

Hello Per,

my apologies for the late reply. I was on vacation for the last couple of weeks.

Hence, I unfortunately have not been able to further investigate this issue. But it would help me a lot if you can provide me with a modem trace and an application log when this behaviour occurs. I then will forward it to our modem team for further analysis.

Regards,

Markus

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

pemar13 — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 13:30:37 GMT

Hi!

Any update on this issue?

We see the same behavior using custom boards with nRF9160 Rev B0. The boards have a non-removable battery backup, so power off/on is not possible. We can short the BU battery for some second, which causes a reset, but does NOT make the system being able to connect. Only downgrading tomodem FW 1.2.3 "helps". Obviously not an acceptable solution.

Edit: Can confirm that draining the BU battery and then powering the device with modem FW 1.3.0 results in successfull LTE connection, confirming that a power on/off works as stated by O.P.

Regards,

Per

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

Albrecht Markus Schellenberger — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 08:58:56 GMT

Thanks a lot for your valuable input, Theodor! We will keep an eye on this one.

Regards,

Markus

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

lobaro-theo — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 10:27:13 GMT

Hello, we at Lobaro can confirm the stated issues with modem firmware 1.3.0 that may fail on connecting at some "random" conditions we where not able to identifiy yet. After downgrading to modem fw. 1.2.3 everything runs finde.

Since we use our own FreeRTOS based environment, e.g. not using the SDK, this can clearly identified in the modem fw.

Best regards,

Theo

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

Albrecht Markus Schellenberger — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 12:34:39 GMT

Hello Noaman,

I’m not quite sure what you mean by ’enable’ pin? Can you elaborate?

Yes, I got this behaviour while I was doing some customer investigations using the nRF9160: LwM2M Client. During that time, I didn’t have the possibility to log anything and of course, now I’m not able to reproduce this issue neither.

I wonder if an alternative could be to shutdown and reinitialise the modem in this situation? At least until we have a log for further analysis.

Regards,

Markus

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

Stratosphere — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 14:30:07 GMT

Hi Markus,

I have been trying to catch the instance where it does not connect for the last 2 days and it has not happened yet. Testing any fix will be just as challenging as issue happens randomly.

In you preious post you mentioned that you observed the same behavior, do you have a fix?

Our asset tracker does not have any means to power cycle the board. can you confim if toggle the 'enable' pin will reboot and fix the issue? My concern is that if it happens, we will not have a way to recover from it since rebooting does not fix it.

Regards

Noaman

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

Albrecht Markus Schellenberger — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 19:01:33 GMT

I’m not aware of that the mfw 1.3.0 requires a certain nRF Connect SDK version. You will however get most out of it using it together with the upcoming nRF Connect SDK v1.6.0, since it also contains samples that will demonstrate the usage/API of the new modem features. nRF Connect SDK v1.6.0 will be released soon.

Btw: if you still would like to provide me with an application log, I would recommend you to build your application with following configuration commando:

CONFIG_AT_CMD_LOG_LEVEL_DBG=y

This will visualise all the AT commands being send.

Thanks and regards,

Markus

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

Stratosphere — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 13:56:12 GMT

I am experiencing the same issue with 1.3 I updated because of GPS performance but LTE just does not connect sometimes even after reboot.

does 1.3 fw require a minumum SDK version? I am using sdk 1.4.2

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

Albrecht Markus Schellenberger — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 12:55:30 GMT

Thanks a lot for your feedback, Smitesh! Would you mind sending me a full application log when this happens? I will forward this to our modem team for further investigations.

Regards,

Markus

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

khodidas — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 05:24:48 GMT

Hi Markus,

It doesn't happen often but when this issue comes only workaround is to power cycle the board.

I have only checked 1.3.0 modem fw with my application. Don't know if it is general issue.

Regards,

Smitesh Mali

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

Albrecht Markus Schellenberger — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 12:43:58 GMT

Hello Smitesh,

how often does this happen? Is this a general issue for your or does it only occur when running selected applications?

Regards,

Markus

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

khodidas — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 08:08:21 GMT

Hi Markus,

Please let me know when you have any news from development team for this issue.

Regards,

Smitesh Mali

RE: nRF9160 Modem Firmware 1.3.0 fails in LTE connection

Albrecht Markus Schellenberger — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 05:53:33 GMT

Hello Smitesh,

thanks a lot for your feedback! I have observed the same behaviour a couple of times, so I can confirm this. I’ll report that to our development department.

Cheers!

Markus