[Unconfirmed] New GD77 hardware:Battery drain and bugs

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EA5SW
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Location: Valencia, Spain

[Unconfirmed] New GD77 hardware:Battery drain and bugs

Post by EA5SW » Wed Jan 15, 2020 7:15 pm

For some time we have problems in two GD-77 of new generation, they were bought a couple of months ago and the firmware has always given problems especially of micro cuts in the RX audio, but right now it has still got worse.

For days, approximately since January 1, all firmware versions lowers the battery charge at full speed, even only in RX.

So in just a few hours it is able to lower the level from 100 to 12 percent

Returning to a firmware earlier than January 1 causes it to return to normal battery consumption levels, although with its problems in RX.

I understand that there must be new GD-77 that something similar happens with the firmware, nobody has experienced something like that ???

kt4lh
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Re: New GD77 hardware:Battery drain and bugs

Post by kt4lh » Wed Jan 15, 2020 8:51 pm

I've had my GD77 since 7/2018 so mine certainly isn't new, I've actually been thinking about measuring power usage on it as it's fairly high, but even at that, it's more like 10-15%/hr, not what you describe at like 40-50%/hr. I would think the radio would be hot if it was draining that fast.

VK3KYY
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Re: New GD77 hardware:Battery drain and bugs

Post by VK3KYY » Thu Jan 16, 2020 2:00 am

Current consumption is currently much higher than the official firmware when the radio is not actively receiving or transmitting.

The official firmware seems to "sleep" the CPU and all the other chips, brief periods, before waking and checking the RSSI, before sleeping again, which drastically reduces the current consumption.

The radio is taking around 85mA on Rx with no backlight and 100mA with 100% backlight.

In the long term we will implement the same power saving level as the official firmware, but currently we are still trying to get the radio to work correctly, and power use minimisation is quite low on the list of work to be done.

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EA5SW
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Re: New GD77 hardware:Battery drain and bugs

Post by EA5SW » Thu Jan 16, 2020 7:49 am

Roger the problem appears from the firmwares from 1st January to today date.... until 1st January the drain are the normal in GD77, upper that official, but not that fast as this versions, also with the GD77 power off the drain are noticeable...

Appears that power off don't are completely shut down, as if the CPU are always on.


I don't sure if the problem are only in those new hardware...

VK3KYY
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Re: New GD77 hardware:Battery drain and bugs

Post by VK3KYY » Thu Jan 16, 2020 9:36 am

EA5SW wrote:
Thu Jan 16, 2020 7:49 am
Roger the problem appears from the firmwares from 1st January to today date.... until 1st January the drain are the normal in GD77, upper that official, but not that fast as this versions, also with the GD77 power off the drain are noticeable...

Appears that power off don't are completely shut down, as if the CPU are always on.


I don't sure if the problem are only in those new hardware...
OK.

I'll need to load one of the older versions onto the radio I have attached direct to a bench PSU, so I can check the current drawn

VK3KYY
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Re: New GD77 hardware:Battery drain and bugs

Post by VK3KYY » Thu Jan 16, 2020 9:48 am

I've loaded the version from 25th December, and its taking exactly the same current as the current version. 100% when no signal with backlight at 100%

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EA5SW
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Re: New GD77 hardware:Battery drain and bugs

Post by EA5SW » Fri Jan 17, 2020 7:42 am

I think that the problem are the new hardware in those 2 units.. some components or similar...

VK3KYY
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Re: New GD77 hardware:Battery drain and bugs

Post by VK3KYY » Fri Jan 17, 2020 10:13 am

I will need to try a much older version of FW on the radio connected to my PSU.

Around 3 months ago I did some tests with the battery connected and I thought the current used was around 50mA, but now I am directly powering from a PSU with no battery, the current is around 80mA with no backlight and 100mA with 100% backlight.

Its possible that my measurements when the battery was also connected were wrong, but the only way to test is perhaps load the Tier1 firmware.

OH1E
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Re: New GD77 hardware:Battery drain and bugs

Post by OH1E » Fri Jan 17, 2020 2:59 pm

i have a early gd77 and a new what is bough on black friday 1-2months ago i will test on psu when i have time.

OH1E
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Re: New GD77 hardware:Battery drain and bugs

Post by OH1E » Fri Jan 17, 2020 3:22 pm

about 90mA is power consumption on both radios, with dmr trafic is 100mA (my psu has only 2decimal)

new radio serial start 1901A
old radio serial start 1701A

EDIT: tried a December firmware the power consumption is same.

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