Dongle always powers down WIFI Access Point after a 15 minutes

Dear Autopi Team
I am new to the Autopi environment and I am trying to implement a CAN listening device to “train myself”. I am planning to implement python code into the Raspberry. For the time being, I don’t need the cloud API.

Subject of the issue

My dongle always shuts down its WIFI Access Point after 15 minutes (but the GREEN LED of the Raspberry Pi 0 stays ON). The dongle is not connected to the internet. I am connected with Putty through the WIFI access point of the dongle. After reading some posts in this forum, I have tried the following actions:

  • I have put a jumper to Force 5V on RPi always
  • I have executed the command : autopi power.sleep_timer enable=false
  • I have stopped the salt-minion service : sudo service salt-minion stop
  • I have created a python script which invokes conn.noop() every 10 seconds since I have read that there is a mechanism which powers down the dongle when the watchdog is not refreshed

But the dongle still powers down after 15 minutes, even if I am connected with putty …
What should I do ?

(for the time being, I am trying to implement custom python scripts for reading the CAN bus to detect OBD messages - I am not using the cloud)

Your environment

  • What version is the dongle? (Find on software state page on my.autopi.io)
    Version: 17d8c3df
    Date: 2018-10-03T17:34:45Z

I am powering the dongle from a lab Power Supply providing 12,7V through the OBD connector.

Steps to reproduce

Tell us how to reproduce this issue.
see above

Expected behaviour

Tell us what you expect should happen
I would expect that the dongle stays alive until I power is down

Actual behaviour

Tell us what happens instead
After 15 Minutes, the dongle shuts down …

Output of power.status command

If your issue is in any way related to the device shutting down or behaving in a unexpected way, please provide the output of the power.status command to help us diagnose the issue.

Run the command

power.status

in the terminal on local.autopi.io, and paste the result here.
If I execute the command before stoping the salt-minion service, I get the following:
rpi:
uptime:
days: 0
seconds: 211
since_iso: ‘2019-06-18T16:35:10.465763’
since_t: 1560875710
time: 0:3
users: 1
spm:
last_state:
down: none
up: ‘on’
last_trigger:
down: none
up: spm
port_a: ‘00100111’
port_b: ‘00000111’
sleep_interval: 0
version: 1.1.1.0
stn:
battery:
level: 100
state: discharging
voltage: 12.7
last_trigger:
sleep: NONE
wake: NONE
trigger_config:
ext_wake: ’ HIGH FOR 2000 ms’
uart_sleep: ’ 900 s’
uart_wake: ’ 0-30000 us’
vchg_wake: ’ +0.20V IN 1000 ms’
vl_sleep: ’ <12.20V FOR 240 s’

Do’s & dont’s

  • Do not write your unit-id anywhere.

Many thanks for your help
Thierry

Dear Autopi
The problem has disappeared even if I don’t stop the salt-minion service, just by disabling the power_save time. I think that my jumper was not properly inserted ?
Thierry

Hi

You should not stop the salt-minion process as that will then not be able to send a heartbeat to our power management circuit, which means that it thinks that the device has crashed, and then performs a hard reset.

It should be enough to clear the timers

autopi power.sleep_timer enable=false

But as this does not prevent the device from setting the sleep timer after it has been cleared, you should wait a minute after the device starts, before you clear, to make sure that the timer has been set before clearing it.

Could this be causing the issues?

Best regards
/Malte

Hello Malte
Thanks for your reply. As I wrote in my second post, the problem has now disappeared:

  • I am not stopping any more the salt-minion service.
  • I have “removed et repositionned” the RPi always jumper on the board.
  • maybe I was stopping the timer too ealry as you suggest (i.e. before it was started) : this might be the reason why I encountered this issue at first.

Anyway, everything is now OK and I have been able to capture my first CAN messages from my car :slight_smile:
Best Regards
Thierry

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