Power consumption while idling

Huimin

Hi Luxonis,

I recently notice that, after we flash in the bootloader for the SoM-Pro (when they are shipped, they seeem to be in UNBOOTED empty state), the idling power draw increases significantly.

I have tried to measure the current draw. When there were no bootloader, the current draw is about ~0.1A. This translate to about 0.5W.

After we have the bootloader (say v0.24, v0.26, v0.28), the current draw varying from unit to unit 0.17-0.19A. That is close to 1W consumption without doing anything. The device is connect to a dump power source, no host connected.

When I press RST button, the current draw goes very low, typically <0.05A, which is fine.

May I check if this is a expected behaviour of RVC2 hardware? I am testing on DD2090 4CAM FFC R3M1E3 board.

Thanks in advance!

jakaskerl

Hi Huimin
That is to be expected since bootloader will usually run some background processes.

You can flash the USB recovery header to put the device back to unbooted mode: (res, message) = bl.flashUsbRecoveryBootHeader(dai.DeviceBootloader.Memory.FLASH)

I altered flash_bootloader.py script slightly (line 70) to make it flash the header.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import depthai as dai
import sys
import time

blType = dai.DeviceBootloader.Type.AUTO
if len(sys.argv) > 1:
    if sys.argv[1] == 'usb':
        blType = dai.DeviceBootloader.Type.USB
    elif sys.argv[1] == 'network':
        blType = dai.DeviceBootloader.Type.NETWORK
    else:
        print("Specify either 'usb' or 'network' bootloader type")
        exit()

deviceInfos = dai.DeviceBootloader.getAllAvailableDevices()
if len(deviceInfos) == 0:
    print("No device found to flash. Exiting.")
    exit(-1)
else:
    for i, di in enumerate(deviceInfos):
        print(f'[{i}] {di.getMxId()} [{di.protocol.name}]', end='')
        if di.state == dai.XLinkDeviceState.X_LINK_BOOTLOADER:
            with dai.DeviceBootloader(di) as bl:
                print(f' current bootloader: {bl.getVersion()}', end='')
        print()
    selected = input(f'Which OAK device to flash factory bootloader for [0..{len(deviceInfos)-1}]: ')
    info = deviceInfos[int(selected)]

hasBootloader = (info.state == dai.XLinkDeviceState.X_LINK_BOOTLOADER)
if hasBootloader:
    print("Warning! Flashing factory bootloader can potentially soft brick your device and should be done with caution.")
    print("Do not unplug your device while the bootloader is flashing.")
    print("Type 'y' and press enter to proceed, otherwise exits: ")
    if input() != 'y':
        print("Prompt declined, exiting...")
        exit(-1)

# Open DeviceBootloader and allow flashing bootloader
print(f"Booting latest bootloader first, will take a tad longer...")
with dai.DeviceBootloader(info, allowFlashingBootloader=True) as bl:
    print("Bootloader version to flash:", bl.getVersion())
    currentBlType = bl.getType()

    if blType == dai.DeviceBootloader.Type.AUTO:
        blType = currentBlType

    # Check if bootloader type is the same, if already booted by bootloader (not in USB recovery mode)
    if currentBlType != blType and hasBootloader:
        print(f"Are you sure you want to flash '{blType.name}' bootloader over current '{currentBlType.name}' bootloader?")
        print(f"Type 'y' and press enter to proceed, otherwise exits: ")
        if input() != 'y':
            print("Prompt declined, exiting...")
            exit(-1)

    try:
        # Clears out user bootloader
        configJson = bl.readConfigData()
        configJson["userBlSize"] = 0
        bl.flashConfigData(configJson)
    except:
        print('No config found, skipping erasing user bootloader')

    # Create a progress callback lambda
    progress = lambda p : print(f'Flashing progress: {p*100:.1f}%')

    print(f"Flashing {blType.name} bootloader...")
    startTime = time.monotonic()
    (res, message) = bl.flashUsbRecoveryBootHeader(dai.DeviceBootloader.Memory.FLASH)
    if res:
        print("Flashing successful. Took", time.monotonic() - startTime, "seconds")
    else:
        print("Flashing failed:", message)

Thanks,
Jaka