Power Profiler Kit Loses Connection During Long Term Measurements

[M@Z]

I have been using the Power Profiler II Kit to perform long duration current draw measurements at 100sps.  Since the recent update of NRF Connect to v.4.0.0 and Power Profiler to 3.5.4 after ~ 4 to 6 hours the Power Profiler Software loses connection with Power Profiler device resulting in the current measurements stopping.  Prior to the update (3.12.0 / 3.5.3) I was able to reliably collect data for up to 24 hours using the same Linux computer.

In an effort to get back to data collection I am trying to revert to the previous version of NRF Connect and the Power Profiler software (3.12.0 and 3.5.3).  I have successfully installed Version 3.12.0 of nRF Connect for Desktop and following the instructions from (https://nordicsemiconductor.github.io/pc-nrfconnect-docs/local_app_installation) I can see the 3.5.3 Power Profiler.  When opening the Power Profiler I receive the following error message:

Cannot find module 'home/user/.nrfconnect-apps/local/pc-nrfconnect-ppk.3.5.3/dist/bundle.js'.  Please verify that the package.json has a valid "main" entry.

After checking through the 3.5.3 Source code(tar.gz) files I was not able to locate a dist/bundle.js file.

Any suggestions for resolving either the long duration measurements with 4.0.0 / 3.5.4 or reverting back to 3.12.0 / 3.5.3 would be greatly appreciated.

[Kenneth]

Hello,

I will check internally if they are aware of any issue. In the meantime I believe the following can work:

 How to downgrade nRF Connect? 

Kenneth 

[M@Z]

Hi Kenneth, 

Thank you for checking with the internal team about the question regarding v.4.0.0 / v3.5.4.

The process described in the link you provided worked for Version 3.7.  Is there an equivalent source which can be added to 3.12.0?  I attempted to use  http://developer.nordicsemi.com/.pc-tools/nrfconnect-apps/3.12-apps/apps.json but this link does not appear to exist.  In the meantime I can start to test with version 3.7.1 of NRF Connect and version 3.1.3 of the Power Profiler.

[Kenneth]

I could not find 3.12, but reverse engineering I could find there is 3.11 (so that may be an option):
developer.nordicsemi.com/.../apps.json

Edit: You should be able to modify the URL to find the right firmware version. There is a JSON file listing them here: https://developer.nordicsemi.com/.pc-tools/nrfconnect-apps/pc-nrfconnect-ppk 

Kenneth

[M@Z]

Hi Kenneth,

Thank you for your suggestion - I was also able to load version 3.11.0 / 3.4.3 from the link which you provided.

Reverting back to the 3.4.3 version of the firmware and testing two devices in parallel from the same computer I have seen one PPK device run until I stopped it after 12+ hours while the other one failed due to a connection loss after~10 hours.  Below are the logs from that device:

2023-03-28T21:29:23.852Z DEBUG Application data folder: /home/USER/.config/nrfconnect/pc-nrfconnect-ppk
2023-03-28T21:29:24.016Z INFO Using nrf-device-lib-js version: 0.4.13
2023-03-28T21:29:24.016Z INFO Using nrf-device-lib version: 0.12.8
2023-03-28T21:29:24.017Z WARN Unable to detect version of nrfjprog DLL.
2023-03-28T21:29:24.017Z WARN Unable to detect version of JLink.
2023-03-28T21:29:24.053Z DEBUG App pc-nrfconnect-ppk v3.4.3 official
2023-03-28T21:29:24.053Z DEBUG App path: /home/USER/.nrfconnect-apps/external/3.11 compatible apps/node_modules/pc-nrfconnect-ppk
2023-03-28T21:29:24.053Z DEBUG nRFConnect 3.12.0, required by the app is (^3.9.2)
2023-03-28T21:29:24.053Z DEBUG nRFConnect path: /tmp/.mount_nrfconcpa6Ig/resources/app.asar
2023-03-28T21:29:24.053Z DEBUG HomeDir: /home/USER
2023-03-28T21:29:24.054Z DEBUG TmpDir: /tmp
2023-03-28T21:29:24.059Z INFO Installed JLink version does not match the provided version (V7.66a)
2023-03-28T21:29:28.862Z DEBUG Client Id: 178d171d-41aa-41cc-98a0-731187817f1f
2023-03-28T21:29:28.955Z DEBUG Google Analytics for category pc-nrfconnect-ppk has initialized
2023-03-28T21:32:00.369Z INFO Validating firmware for device with s/n CD1F75150FEF
2023-03-28T21:32:00.384Z INFO Opening device with s/n CD1F75150FEF
2023-03-28T21:32:00.396Z DEBUG Sending usage data {"category":"pc-nrfconnect-ppk","action":"architecture","label":"x64"}
2023-03-28T21:32:00.399Z DEBUG Sending usage data {"category":"pc-nrfconnect-ppk","action":"PPK2 selected"}
2023-03-28T21:32:00.602Z INFO Trigger length updated to 10 ms
2023-03-28T21:32:00.659Z INFO PPK started
2023-03-28T21:32:00.720Z INFO PPK opened
2023-03-28T21:32:00.724Z INFO DUT ON
2023-03-28T21:32:20.137Z DEBUG Sending usage data {"category":"pc-nrfconnect-ppk","action":"Real Time sampling started"}
2023-03-28T21:32:20.197Z INFO Sampling started
2023-03-29T07:25:04.592Z INFO Deselecting device
2023-03-29T07:25:05.762Z INFO Sampling stopped
2023-03-29T07:25:06.604Z INFO PPK closed

As you can see in the third to last line the device lost connection ("Deselecting device") resulting in the data collection stopping.  

Yesterday I looked into Linux settings which could possibly be interfering with the USB connection during the long runs.  One system I changed was able to identify and test was modifying usbcore.autosuspend and setting it to -1 (to prevent the system from disabling any USB devices).  Unfortunately re-running the 12 hour log resulted in the same result with 1 device running until I stopped it and the other device failing due to being Deselected.

 

Are there any other Linux system settings or PPK device settings which could result in the PPK device losing connection during a long test run? 

[mjatmv]

I'm having this issue too, however it has followed me across 2 linux computers and one macbook. I only get two hours or so before the power profile just stops, on what is set up to be a 24 hour log. Anyone at Nordic actually helping to fix this?

nRF connect 4.3.0 power profiler 4.0.0 beta3