ULPM on FX30

jameshorng · November 3, 2020, 5:19am

I followed the Octave document below to set ULPM on FX30 (FW 3.0.2), but run into weird situation.

I set timer to 120 sec.

Then, I added an event in command stream to trigger ulpm

After about 30sec, FX30 did power down. The LED went off. I waited for more than 120 seconds and the FX30 did not wake up. FX30 never wake up even after more than 5 minutes’ wait.

Then here it comes the weird part. I cycled the power and FX30 did power up. But it power down again in about 60 second. I couldn’t do anything from Octave dashboard to bring it back to normal operation because it kept shutting down.

I added an observation /util/ulpm/value.timer to trigger an EA to disable ulpm. But it didn’t help.
function(event) {
return {
“dh://util/ulpm/shutdown” : [false],
}
}

at!powermode? showed status=2 (Enable PSM) from console. I have to use at!powermode=0 to disable PSM to bring FX30 back to normal.

Can anyone tell me what I did wrong or missed any steps? How can I correctly set ulpm from Octave dashboard or EA?

jj1 · November 6, 2020, 8:10am

Hi James,

I have similar problems and as I did not know of the AT command you mentioned I ended up flashing a new image using swiflash from a PC to make it stop. I think it would be nice if the at!powermode=0 command was mentioned on the ULPM documentation page as a lot of people will need it. Can the same be done from the command line via ssh in any way?

I too still haven’t found a solution to the boot loop problem.

jameshorng · November 6, 2020, 8:56am

Since I couldn’t get anything changed through Octave, I use ssh to check and found the powermode is 2, which is PSM mode according to document.

jameshorng · December 3, 2020, 2:03am

New 3.1.0 FW seemed to fix this problem. I was able to use ULPM correctly on FX30S after FW upgrade.

jameshorng · December 4, 2020, 6:21am

ULPM works well on FX30S after 3.1.0 FW upgrade. However, when ULPM command is send from Octave Dashboard to FX30, FX30 enter PSM mode. I was expecting FX30 and FX30S should behave similarly with new FW. But it is not. Looks like another FW is needed for ULPM to work on FX30.

djudkins · December 9, 2020, 3:51pm

Hi James, I will test ULPM on both device types in 3.1.0. The functionality should be identical. If it is not, I will report the bug.

jameshorng · December 9, 2020, 10:55pm

I tested ULPM on one FX30S and two FX30. Before testing ULPM, I factory reset FX30, set {“timer”: xxx} to ulpm/config on Octave and issue command from ulpm/shutdown. FX30S wake up after time out as expected. Both FX30 went into PSM when ULPM command was issued.

djudkins · December 16, 2020, 9:50pm

Hi James, I tested FX30s with ULPM and they both went into ULPM and wokeup at the prescribed timer event

jameshorng · December 17, 2020, 7:29am

Hi, David,
Yes. FX30s (RS232 version) was OK. But FX30 (Ethernet version) went into PSM mode instead of ULPM. Please try it on FX30.

djudkins · December 17, 2020, 1:50pm

Hi James,
I tested on 2 FX30’s type Ethernet with success

jameshorng · December 18, 2020, 1:13am

On FX30, when I changed ulpm timer setting from 600 to 180 in Octave
util/ulpm/config {“timer”:180},
AT command “AT!POWERWAKE?” confirmed the change for ULPM TIMER.

However, there is “PSM TIMER:180000, ACTIVE TIMER: 20, SYNC: 2” response from FX30 where FX30s doesn’t show this.

When I issued shutdown command from Octave { “util/ulpm/shutdown”: 1 }, the AT!POWERMODE showed status changed from 9 to 8 (PSM disabled -> enabled) on FX30. FX30s went into ULPM before I can get response with AT!PWOERMODE? command.

Not sure why my FX30 and FX30s behave differently.

jameshorng · December 18, 2020, 4:52am

I forced FX30 to disconnect from network by removing antenna. I use AT!powerwake=1,90,90,2 to set ULPM timer and AT!powermode=3 to make FX30 enter ULPM. FX30 was able to wake after 90 second.
After FX30 wake up, ULPM timer get changed to the timer value set by Octave (85 sec). PSM TIMER became 180000. AT!powermode=3 made FX30 enter ULPM again and wakeup after 85 sec. I can repat this without problem.

The, I plugged antenna back in to FX30. After Octave detected FX30 is back on line, FX30 went into PSM mode couple seconds later automatically.

I have a few questions.

Where to set PSM TIMER in Octave?
What would make FX30 enter PSM mode? Anyway to disable PSM mode from Octave?
When FX30 is not connecting to network, ULPM seems to work as expected by AT command. But once it is connected to Octave, ULPM doesn’t work. Why?

jj1 · January 29, 2021, 8:26am

Hi James,

I am not sure if this answers your questions but I had similar problems.

I found this thread here:

…which explained how to turn PSM off, with AT+CPSMS=0 (not with an exclamation mark as shown in the preview).
Apparently it solved the problem of the FX30S entering either ULPM or PSM when the antenna was connected.

AT+CPSMS?
+CPSMS:1,“00011000”,“00001010”
AT+CPSMS=0
OK
AT+CPSMS?
+CPSMS:0,“00011000”,“00001010”
OK

I have only been using ULPM from Octave and pmtool from the command line so I have no idea how PSM have been enabled.

jameshorng · February 4, 2021, 6:02am

Thanks for the suggestion, jj1.

This is the result from my FX30

AT+CPSMS showed PSM is disabled. But AT!powerwake show PSM Timer is set to 14400.

The following is the result from my FX30S

The AT!POWERWAKE? only show the ULPM Timer, not PSM TIMER.

Not sure why PSM Timer is set on FX30, but not on FX30S. The behavior on FX30S is what I would expected. Still need help on the FX30 ULPM issue.

jameshorng · February 5, 2021, 1:14am

I have done a sequence of tests on FX30 (FW: 3.1.0). The following result is really confused me.
Test#1:
Set wakeup timer to 60sec (AT!powerwake=1,60,60,2)
Set power mode to ULPM (AT!powermode=3)

Result: FX30 enter ULPM successfully ans wake up after 60 sec

After wakeup from ULPM, the ULPM Timer was changed to the setting I set in Octave. PSM Timer got changed to 300sec. (not sure how this timer was set?)

Test#2
Use AT!powermode=3 to make FX30 enter ULPM again without setting powerwake.
This time FX30 wakeup after 180 sec according to the ULPM Timer.
AT!powermode & AT!powerwake result stay the same.

Test#3
I use Octave to send ULPM shutdown command

FX30 did not enter ULPM mode this time.
I used AT command to check and found the PSM Timer got changed again to 3240 sec. And power mode status showing status=8, PSM enabled. (head scratching???)

Test#4
Use AT!powermode=3 to make FX30 enter ULPM again
FX30 enter ULPM & wakeup after 180 sec.
After wakeup, status=2-Initialized
PSM Timer got changed to 1320sec.

Test#5
Use AT!powermode=3 to make FX30 enter ULPM again
FX30 enter ULPM & wakeup after 180 sec.
After wakeup, status=2-Initialized
PSM Timer got changed to 1320sec.

Test#6
Use AT!powermode=3 to make FX30 enter ULPM again
FX30 enter ULPM & wakeup after 180 sec.
After wakeup, status=2-Initialized
PSM Timer got changed to 3240sec.

PSM Timer change to random number every time. But AT!powermode=3 can set FX30 to ULPM and wake up according to ULPM Timer.

So the problem is why using AT command can set FX30 to ULPM, but not Octave.

jameshorng · May 26, 2021, 1:40am

After working on something else the last couple months. I came back to work on FX30S and found ULPM is not working any more. FX30S behaves like FX30 that I encountered before. Sometimes, it went into PSM mode. Somethims, it does nothing. Octave ULPM command does not put FX30S into ULPM any more.

3.1.0 FW is more than 6 months old. ULPM seems to be an known issues as it mentioned in the 3.1.0 release. Hope new FW will be available soon with fix.

jameshorng · May 27, 2021, 7:01am

I tested the ULPM again on my FX30S. This time, I go extreme by doing factory reset (AT!ENTERCND=“A710”, AT!RMARESET=1) on my FX30S and locally upgrade the FW to the latest one 3.1.0.

I used AT command to check the status before I do anything with Octave.
AT+CPSMS? command showed PSM is disabled (+CPSMS:0,“00011000”,“00001010”)

I then use Octave to set ULPM timer and send command to trigger ULPM

Right after I send Octave command to trigger ULPM, I used AT+CPSMS? to check again and noticed the PSM become enabled (+CPSMS:1,“00011000”,“00001010”) and FX30S enter PSM right away.

I wonder why PSM was enabled by Octave ULPM command? Anyone can help?

jj1 · May 31, 2021, 6:30am

Hi James,

This corresponds very well to my observations, even on firmware 3.2.0rc3.

It is really time for Sierra Wireless to take this issue seriously as it renders the FX30 useless for battery powered applications including mine. We need to deploy our FX30/Octave based system within the next week but we can’t due to this bug.

Can someone from Sierra Wireless please provide a plan for resolving this?

jameshorng · May 31, 2021, 7:03am

Hi, jj1,
That’s not a good news to know as I was expecting new FW will fix this problem. I was trying to deploy an POC with solar power. Without working ULPM, I’m stuck too.

cpoirier · June 3, 2021, 10:06am

Hi Jes, James,

We’re taking this issue seriously to enable your low consumption use case with ULPM.
We have leads of the potential root cause and we’re leading further testing to confirm.
To help us in assessing the issue could you precise with which network the PSM is automatically enabled while you enable ULPM with Octave command?