CCS/LAUNCHXL-CC26X2R1: Battery Life calculation Error in Energy Trace

Pritesh Metha4

Part Number: LAUNCHXL-CC26X2R1
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: CC2640R2F, , ENERGYTRACE

Tool/software: Code Composer Studio

Hi,

We are struggling to find the right BLE product from TI portfolio which can provide us a stable BLE beacon product.Our concerns- Battery Life and Stable code.

We have already spent 4 months working with 2650,2640,2640R2f, As per industry standard BLE beacons are supposed to work for a year atleast with CR2032 battery. Energy trace as per below screenshot shows 10- 15 days. Energy trace, launchpad used in standalone mode and debugger is OFF

How can we move forward with our design, with this.. Await your prompt help...

Regards

Pritesh

over 6 years ago

0 Evan W over 6 years ago

TI__Mastermind 39800 points

Pritesh,

Without knowing what your application looks like, its not possible for us to comment on this. What is your advertising interval? Are you ever connected to anything? What battery do you intend to use?

Have you looked at the BT Power Calculator? http://www.ti.com/tool/BT-POWER-CALC
It can be used to verify the power numbers you see in Energy Trace vs the numbers given from the spreadsheet. The numbers from the spreadsheet were taken from a Keysight Power Analyzer.

0 Pritesh Metha4 over 6 years ago in reply to Evan W

Intellectual 555 points

Hi Evan,

We are using SimpleBLEBroadcaster with default broadcast time. It is set to 10sec ADV for the below screenshot data.

Battery - CR2032 (230 mAH coin)

External Connection - None

Powered / connected via - USB

Device - TI Launchpad CC26x2R1

Energy trace suggests 15 days which i think is either incorrect or there is something that we are missing. We will use the power calculator and report once again with our screenshot.

Please work on it and suggest.

Regards

Pritesh

0 Markel Robregado over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

Guru 86755 points

Hi Pritesh,

I have use Energy Trace to measure the current consumption of CC2640R2F Launchpad and just the use adds about 200 uA to actual current consumption. Also you need to shutdown the SPI External Flash before doing so.

The best way to measure to battery life of your device is according to the document below, using Keysight DC Power Analyzer.

The problem I see with the setup at the document above is that the use of DC Power Analyzer uses constant power supply. The Keithley setup below can simulate the property of a coin cell battery which will give you better battery life analysis or computation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feEFfuC-Ajs

The equipment to do this are expensive.

-kel

0 Pritesh Metha4 over 6 years ago in reply to Markel Robregado

Intellectual 555 points

Hi Markel Robregado,

I got 15 days 9 hours on CR2032 with SimpleBroadcaster application and External flash consume around 7uA extra current according to above document.Also there is no Flash option in SimpleBroadcaster application.

0 Markel Robregado over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

Guru 86755 points

Hi Pritesh,

The LAUNCHXL-CC26X2R1 has SPI External Flash.

-kel

0 Pritesh Metha4 over 6 years ago in reply to Markel Robregado

Intellectual 555 points

Hi,

How to disable External SPI flash in SimpleBroadcaster application.

0 Markel Robregado over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

Guru 86755 points

Hi,

At Board.h there is Board_shutDownExtFlash(). Call that at Simple Broadcaster Init.

-kel

0 Pritesh Metha4 over 6 years ago in reply to Markel Robregado

Intellectual 555 points

Hi,

Even after disabling External Flash.No successes.Same backup 15 days 8 hours.

0 Markel Robregado over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

Guru 86755 points

Hi Pritesh,

Did you remove the jumpers same with the Energy Trace video below?

youtu.be/WOiJsRBMmr4

-kel

0 Pritesh Metha4 over 6 years ago in reply to Markel Robregado

Intellectual 555 points

Hi,

I have removed all jumpers only 3.3v and gnd connected getting 16 days battery life.

Mean current is 0.569mA.

0 Evan W over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

TI__Mastermind 39800 points

Pritesh,

Can you please provide a picture of your setup that you are testing?

0 Markel Robregado over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

Guru 86755 points

Hi Pritesh,

Try increasing the advertising interval to every 30 seconds then every 1 minute.

-kel

0 Evan W over 6 years ago in reply to Markel Robregado

TI__Mastermind 39800 points

I have to say, I believe there is something wrong with the test setup either in HW or in SW as you should be seeing much longer battery life with your advertising parameters.

You might make sure you aren't doing any other BLE operations than what is expected by checking what is happening on the RX and TX pins and using a logic analyzer to confirm nothing else other than the advertisements is occuring: http://dev.ti.com/tirex/content/simplelink_cc2640r2_sdk_3_10_00_15/docs/blestack/ble_user_guide/html/ble-stack-3.x-guide/debugging-index.html#debugging-rf-output

0 Pritesh Metha4 over 6 years ago in reply to Evan W

Intellectual 555 points

Hi Evan ,

I found following trial and error methods to find issue-

1) First I setup CCS9.1.0 on server with 32GB ram and rum Energy trace for SimpleBroadcaster app.Get 1 year 5 months for CR2032 battery.

2) For simplePeripheral i found 5 months 6 days on same server.

3) I tried with my local system by closing all extra Application with 8 GB ram and i7 processor found 3 months 5 days for simplePeripheral.

4) Again i closed CCS and restart local system and tried simplePeripheral and Found 5 month 6 days which same as reading from Server.

0 Evan W over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

TI__Mastermind 39800 points

Hi Pritesh,

Can you provide a picture of your setup of the launchpad including the points you attach 3v3 and gnd?

Also, please inform me of the version of your CC26x2R1 launchpad that you are using and which version of the SDK you are using.

0 Pritesh Metha4 over 6 years ago in reply to Evan W

Intellectual 555 points

Hi Evan ,

I am using Launchxl CC26x2R1 Rev:B

SDK- simplelink_cc13x2_26x2_sdk_3_10_01_11

Please find attached image-

0 Evan W over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

TI__Mastermind 39800 points

Hi Pritesh,

I believe i see the issue. The LaunchPad you are using is very old and the Energy Trace circuitry on that LaunchPad does not work as intended as it was an early release of the LP.

Also, the silicon on that LaunchPad is Rev B and this silicon should not be supported by the 3.10 SDK. https://e2e.ti.com/support/wireless-connectivity/bluetooth/f/538/t/767769

Please read the above link and order a new CC26x2R1 LaunchPad that has production rated silicon and updated/fixed EnergyTrace technology.

0 Markel Robregado over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

Guru 86755 points

Hi,

The PC RAM affects the result of Energy Trace. I have used Energy Trace using 4GB RAM PC and often the Energy Trace would pause and hang then it will give inconsistent battery life reading.

-kel

0 Pritesh Metha4 over 6 years ago in reply to Evan W

Intellectual 555 points

Hi I,

Rev B is for Launchpad but chip cc2652r1 is used on it is silicone REV E Which support latest SDK (SDK Above 2.4.0)

0 Evan W over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

TI__Mastermind 39800 points

Pritesh,

Thats great to hear that you're using Rev E silicon. However, the Energytrace on your launchpad is the old EnergyTrace which exhibited accuracy issues in not being able to measure low current draws (only peak current draws). Therefore, I still must request that you order a new CC26x2R1 LaunchPad which features the new energy trace with sub 1 uA accuracy. The new energy trace looks like the following https://www.compel.ru/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/lnx.png

Please note the difference between your LP and the one in this image.

0 Pritesh Metha4 over 6 years ago in reply to Evan W

Intellectual 555 points

Hi ,

Yesterday I thought there was problem with my Launchpad so i have ordered new another same launchpad.so can you give link for Launchpad shown in above image.I did not find it in ti store.Ti store shows only one launchpad which i already have.

0 Evan W over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

TI__Mastermind 39800 points

Hi Pritesh,

If you ordered a new launchpad, we have replaced all the old launchpads with the old energy trace with new LP's with the new energytrace a few months back. We just have not updated the image online, but i can assure you you will receive a new launchpad with the new energytrace. We only ship new LPs now with the functioning energy trace.

0 Pritesh Metha4 over 6 years ago in reply to Evan W

Intellectual 555 points

Hi,

I have received my current Launchpad in last week so it also new one .I have also tested with 12 gb RAM with i5 5th gen system but also having same calculation issue.what to to do next.

0 Evan W over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

TI__Mastermind 39800 points

Hi Pritesh,

Forgive me, i actually confused myself and may have confused you. You do have the updated energy trace and you are right.

Have you disconnected the jumpers on DIO6/DIO7 to the LEDs? The image is hard to tell if these are still connected?

0 Markel Robregado over 6 years ago in reply to Evan W

Guru 86755 points

I saw the pic of the launchpad. You need to remove all jumpers. Led jumpers can stay. Power needs to come from the energy trace add on board.

Anyway if you are using energy trace to determine the battery life of your product you intend to sell, i dont recommend it. If its for a personal project is okay.

Best to use Keysight DC Power Analyzer.

0 Pritesh Metha4 over 6 years ago in reply to Markel Robregado

Intellectual 555 points

HI,

I found solution by following way ,

Please find attached video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9-wfg4y_Xc

0 Evan W over 6 years ago in reply to Pritesh Metha4

TI__Mastermind 39800 points

Pritesh,

A few other random thoughts.

I see in that video that you're taking a 10second average, but your advertisement is 10 seconds as well. To get a good average, try taking a measurement over a longer period of time.

The broadcaster that you are performing a power measurement on may be getting scan requested and thus the device sends a scan response. The best way to ensure that you are only advertsing every 10s is to use a logic analyzer and connect them to the RX and TX pins via the following debug guide and see that the device is actively trasnmitting or receiving or not.

http://dev.ti.com/tirex/content/simplelink_cc13x2_26x2_sdk_3_10_00_53/docs/ble5stack/ble_user_guide/html/ble-stack-5.x-guide/debugging-index.html#debugging-rf-output

Any extra time the radio is on, it will consume extra current. Beyond this, you can be assured that a properly set up BLE project with our device will using 10s advertisements that are non-scannable will consume little battery life. I again recommend that you look at the BT power calculator to get an idea of our lab tested measurements with the Keysight Power Analyzer that Kel has mentioned.

This guide should also be referenced when considering BLE power calculations. I highly suggest you read through it.

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CCS/LAUNCHXL-CC26X2R1: Battery Life calculation Error in Energy Trace