(hardware watchdog & hard reset [17149]) and (brown-out & hard reset [17149])

[TobiasR]

I’m encountering more challenges.

Running my Notecard + Notecarrier powered with USB-micro on the carrier board, things works OK. Also with the battery connected at the same time. Battery connected to BAT on the the carrier. When disconnecting the USB-cable strange things start to happen.

Reconnecting the USB I cant connect with terminal. I need to power cycle the board to be able to connect the terminal again.

info
~ Blues Wireless Notecard
~ ProductUID: se.karlit.tobias:tracker
~ DeviceUID: dev:86853106019945
~ Serial Number: 02
~ Notehub Host: a.notefile.net
~ Firmware Version: notecard-8.1.4.17149
~ SKU: NOTE-MBGLW
~ Modem: EG916QGLLGR01A05M04_01.001.01.001
~ ICCID: 89011704274021156121
~ IMSI: 310170402115612
~ IMEI/MAC: 868531060199457
~ Provisioned: Wed Jul 30 2025 18:34:02 GMT+0200 (Central European Summer Time) (2025-07-30T16:34:02.000Z)
~ Used Over-the-Air: 286545 bytes
~ Sync Mode: periodic
~ Sync Upload Period: 10 minutes
~ Download Period: 720 minutes
~ Notehub Status: 8s waiting for wireless service {wait-service} {connecting}
~ Last Synced:
~ Voltage: 4.35V
~ Temperature: 33.50C
~ GPS Mode: periodic
~ Location: 55.97008000000001,12.7645605
~ Current Time: Thu Jul 31 2025 14:37:31 GMT+0200 (Central European Summer Time) (2025-07-31T12:37:31.000Z)
~ Boot Time: Thu Jul 31 2025 14:36:44 GMT+0200 (Central European Summer Time) (2025-07-31T12:36:44.000Z)
~ Notefiles:
~ Notefile Storage Used: 2%
~ Env: {
~ “_tri_mins”: “1440”,
~ “_comment”: “Card 2”,
~ “_sn”: “02”
~ }

Device Health

`Thu 02:23:46 PM: boot (hardware watchdog & hard reset [17149])

Thu 02:20:39 PM: boot (hardware watchdog & hard reset [17149])

Thu 02:17:44 PM: boot (hardware watchdog & hard reset [17149])

Thu 02:14:50 PM: boot (hardware watchdog & hard reset [17149])

Thu 02:11:57 PM: boot (hardware watchdog & hard reset [17149])

Thu 02:08:50 PM: boot (hardware watchdog & hard reset [17149])

Thu 02:05:53 PM: boot (hardware watchdog & hard reset [17149])

Thu 02:02:56 PM: boot (brown-out & hard reset [17149])

Thu 11:21:00 AM: boot (brown-out & hard reset [17149])

Thu 10:29:10 AM: boot (brown-out & hard reset [17149])

Wed 09:42:18 PM: boot (hardware watchdog & hard reset [17149])

Wed 09:36:25 PM: boot (hardware watchdog & hard reset [17149])

Wed 09:30:38 PM: boot (hardware watchdog & hard reset [17149])

Wed 09:29:00 PM: boot (hardware watchdog & hard reset [17149])

Wed 08:27:11 PM: boot (brown-out & hard reset [17149])

Wed 08:15:30 PM: boot (brown-out & hard reset [17149])

Wed 08:06:40 PM: boot (restart request [17149] [4.0] G:Gp:W1 M:Mp:W0 U:W0 R:Rpr S:W217 T:W~ I:W~ W X Y)

Wed 08:04:18 PM: boot (brown-out & hard reset [17149])

Wed 07:59:41 PM: boot (brown-out & hard reset [17149])

Wed 07:28:34 PM: boot (relaunch after DFU [17149])

Wed 07:28:15 PM: DFU notecard firmware version updated to: {‘org’:‘Blues Wireless’,‘product’:‘Notecard’,‘target’:‘u5’,‘version’:‘notecard-u5-8.1.4’,‘ver_major’:8,‘ver_minor’:1,‘ver_patch’:4,‘ver_build’:17149,‘built’:‘Mar 19 2025 14:53:33’}

Wed 07:19:39 PM: boot (restart request [17281] [4.0] G:Gp:W260 M:Mp:W900 U R:Rpr S:W138 T:W~ I:W~ W X Y)

Wed 06:33:25 PM: boot (restart request [17281] [4.0] G:Gp:W~ M:Mp:W0 U:W0 R:Rpr S:W0 T:W~ I:W~ W X Y)

Wed 06:33:42 PM: DFU unknown firmware version updated to: {‘org’:‘Blues Wireless’,‘product’:‘Notecard’,‘target’:‘u5’,‘version’:‘notecard-u5-9.2.1’,‘ver_major’:9,‘ver_minor’:2,‘ver_patch’:1,‘ver_build’:17281,‘built’:‘Jul 9 2025 11:36:04’}`

It still uploads notas as seen in the screenshot.

The battery I’m trying to run it off:
https://www.electrokit.com/en/batteri-li-ion-18650-3.7v-3500mah-inr18650-35e

[TobiasR]

Further testing shows that I can not get it to run continuously on anything else than USB. I have hooked up a bench supply at 5V to VIN and Solar. It starts up once and syncs with Notehub, then seems to go to sleep forever. No lights, no nothing.

On USB it syncs every 5 min, just as instructed.

Conf:

{
“req”: “hub.set”,
“product”: “se.karlit.tobias:tracker”,
“mode”: “periodic”,
“outbound”: 5,
“inbound”: 5
}

{
“req”: “card.location.mode”,
“mode”: “off”
}

{
“req”: “card.temp”,
“minutes”: 2
}

Notehub:

[TobiasR]

Another observation: The red led on the Notecard flashes at approx 0.5Hz when on USB. On any other power source the LED is off.

[RobLauer]

Hi @TobiasR,

Clearly there is some kind of power integrity issue going on, so let’s see if we can get to the bottom of this.

1. Can you send a picture of your project? I’d like to see how those batteries are wired to the Notecarrier.
2. It’s worth scoping the voltage of the batteries when it’s disconnected from USB to see if there is a significant voltage dip.

Thanks,

Rob

[TobiasR]

Thank you for your suggestions and helping to troubleshoot.

Here is a photo. As seen on the multi-meter, the voltage on the battery itself is ~4V. Dipping to ~3.95 when powering the Notecard/carrier on.

By the way, now it is acting differently. It doesent seem to completely die after first boot up when on battery (as it did before), but rather reboot and reboot. Please see Events:

[TobiasR]

Further testing:

I swapped the battery out: No difference.

I swapped the Notecard out (and downgraded it to FW ver notecard-8.1.4.17149): Now it stays working when hooked up to the battery. No brown-outs or resets in the logs. It also responds to being re-connected to USB. Seems to be OK, so far.

Can one of my Notecards be broken?

Working setup on battery

OK Notecard

Broken?

No errors:

[RobLauer]

Hi @TobiasR,

For the Notecard that is NOT working, I’d have you try a couple of things:

1. Use the {“req”:”card.restore”,”delete”:true} command to perform a factory reset, just to make sure.
2. Were you using any voltage variable behaviors on the Notecard that would cause it to sync more frequently on USB vs battery power?

Thanks,

Rob

[TobiasR]

Hi!

I did the {“req”:”card.restore”,”delete”:true} a couple of times when troubleshooting the card that doesn’t work. For the voltage variables, I tried different settings. But that was after I encountered these problems.

Example:
{
“req”: “hub.set”,
“product”: “se.karlit.tobias:tracker”,
“mode”: “periodic”,
“outbound”: 5,
“inbound”: 5,
“voutbound”: “-”,
“vinbound”: “-”,
“uperiodic”:true,
“umin”:false,
“uoff”:false
}

But I could not get it to behave differently.

[TobiasR]

I now tried to hook up the “faulty” Notecard to another carrier that I also bought but never used. Works fine on USB but not on battery. Same problem as before.

Firmware Version: notecard-8.1.4.17149

Did reset first thing:
{“req”:”card.restore”,”delete”:true}

Conf:

{
“req”: “hub.set”,
“product”: “se.karlit.tobias:tracker”,
“mode”: “periodic”,
“outbound”: 5,
“inbound”: 5
}

{
“req”: “card.location.mode”,
“mode”: “off”
}

{
“req”: “card.temp”,
“minutes”: 2
}

This happens upon powering up wirh battery. Then nothing more.

[RobLauer]

Hi @TobiasR ,

I’d be interested to see what happens with both Notecards installed and powered by battery only, and scope VMAIN during boot. If you see a sharper drop with the potentially faulty Notecard, it could be hardware issue.

Rob

[TobiasR]

Hi! Sorry for late reply. I will have to dig out my oscilloscope and do the test. I will come back with result.