Battery life not as expected, 4g module shuts the whole thing down

uConsole
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So, i’ve received my uConsole and it’s amazing. It’s loads of fun, but something doesn’t quite add up.
I’d never used 18650s, or any battery similar before, so I purchased some from the rain-forest thinking “a battery is a battery.”

Well, I’m seeing less than 2 hours runtime while idling in a terminal. (multi-user.target, no DE loaded brightness at minimum)
I’ve seen posts which show users getting 9+ hours (though the graphs are unlabled, uConsole statistics tool and power consumtion benchmark)

Another thing was that when i enable the 4g module, the whole thing craps out unless I’m plugged in at the time.

I chalked this up to batteries, since they may not actually grow very healthy on trees.
I went to a brick and mortar battery store and purchased a new pair of 18650’s…but I have the same behaviour. Extremely low rundown times, and I cannot enable the 4G module while on battery power.

Does anyone else have this experience? I’d like to be able to use the mobile 4g while uh…mobile…and not plugged in. The new batteries are “Ultralast 3400mAh”, and I’ve ordered a pair of Samsung 35E but the shipping is a bit too slow for my patience.

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I would not recommend buying batteries from Amazon, it is known that they are misrepresented garbage. Look up a reputable source (I chose 18650batterystore.com) and buy them there. The continuous discharge rate for your batteries as well as whether they are protected is also a factor.

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For my new batteries, I went to a physical store, Batteries Plus, and purchased UltraLast 3.7V 3400mAH batteries with PCB Protection circuit. Now that you mention it, could the protection circuit cause the battery to ‘turn off’ when the 4G module turns on? In that case, is an unprotected battery better?
I’m a complete newcomer to all things battery.

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The protection circuit causing the shutoff was my suspicion. I was also thinking that the continuous discharge rate for your batteries may be too low. I bought batteries with a 10A discharge rate but I saw 8A and 6A for sale as well. Might be worth checking what yours are.

I’m also completely new to this but I’m hoping to learn a lot from your troubleshooting because I don’t have my uConsole yet. Thanks!

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It could. A big spike in current can cause the voltage to sag a bit which might trigger the protection circuit to think the battery is discharged and disconnect it until it gets power again. Fairly often in my experience, those chips latch into the “discharged” state until you either disconnect the battery to reset it or connect it to a power supply to charge.

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The batteries I did purchase do not mention the Constant Discharge Rate, just the nominal voltage and the mAh, however I went downtown to get some without protection. Batteries. These new batteries will probably not live in the uConsole, as the branding and source do not inspire confidence, but they have a CDR of 22.1Amp max. The batteries are literally decorated with leaves, and not the legal kind. Surprised these didn’t come from the rainforest.

If the battery cutting out is due to current spike, I’ll be able to:
A) activate 4g while on battery
B) log the current draw from inside the system (previous attempts stop logging before it dies).

Unfortunately, last time it died such, it corrupted my kernel (finally something I know how to fix!) So I’ll have to completely reinstall (and i’m using a CM4 with emmc, so that takes a minute.)

I also found that the Samsung batteries I purchased are rated for 8A/3400mAh. I ordered a set of Panasonics which are 10A/3450mAh, and another set of samsungs rated for 15A/3000mAh.

Will update with the 4g activation status today.

For battery life, I fear I’ll live with an external battery pack. When the high quality batteries arrive, maybe things will be different, but it’s not looking good. I trimmed down some extras (blutooth was running, for example) but that only added about 30m to my runtime.

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Aight folks, it’s bad news.
Check the edit, HINT: I was wrong.

For reference, I’ve the cm4 8gb/32gb as the core. ( I also have a 4gb light, but I think the results will be similar.)
Additionally, this is a super fresh install of the official clockworkpi uconsole image, GitHub - clockworkpi/uConsole: This code repository offers downloads for the latest images of various uConsole models, along with kernel patches, firmware for the keyboard and 4G expansion module, hardware schematics, assembly instructions, and essential technical documents.. (which is super out of date, issue for another thread (update will break VLC!!!))

Using the weed batteries I bought from a vape shop, which have no protection, the 4G module can be booted without issue.

I used the /sys/class/power_supply/<your_battery>-battery/current_now file to get the drawn current, though there may be better ways, idk.

Protected Battery first, system cuts off after the 4g module is ‘active’ but before I obtain an IP from the carrier.

$ cat protected_current.log
773000
775000
806000
770000
743000
756000
756000
784000
755000
755000
805000
819000
790000
770000
753000
753000
754000
758000
758000
741000
787000
823000
886000
839000
849000
880000
885000
880000
854000
903000
915000
914000

Then we see the bad news, on the unprotected batteries:

$ cat unprotected_current.log
773000
769000
806000
757000
722000
737000
742000
727000
724000
711000
723000
752000
802000
802000
803000
805000
901000
885000
871000
849000
855000
901000
912000
882000
885000
930000
962000
963000
1061000
995000
1008000
994000
998000
962000
903000
912000
1027000
1095000
1219000
1383000
1555000
1543000
1828000
1765000
1602000
1315000
1031000
1106000
1378000
1200000
1189000
1266000
1316000
1302000
1283000
1331000
1127000
945000
903000
898000
881000
885000
883000
882000
885000
1509000
1283000
1315000
1157000
1156000
1200000
1280000
1157000
1104000
1061000
982000
998000
1009000
949000

You can see right where the 4G module activates, then it starts the Carrier Authentication process. All at much higher values than before turning it on.

I left the logging on for a while, but it did not calm down. Regular pushes up past what I presume is the 10A range. There are no units attached, but I presume since the protected battery doesn’t have a log above 1000000, and the unprotected battery DOES have values much higher than 1000000, that that number is 10A.

So, it looks like a protected battery will be unstable with the 4g module unless you go for a higher CDR and lower mAh. Considering with an admittedly yet-to-be-optimized, default OS for the uConsole, the 3400mAh batteries only give 2hrs+/- of runtime without 4G on…I’d say the 4G module is mostly worthless.

This is my experience so far, anyway, as a newbie to batteries, a brand-spankin-new uConsole, and the default image. I’ve a few Samsung, Sony, and Panasonic batteries ordered. Maybe when they come in I’ll see higher runtimes. Also who needs the DE, or bluetooth, etc. Some optimization could eek out more runtime.

EDIT:
I’m wrong about units here.
According to Jeff Geerlings post, Review of Raspberry Pi's PoE+ HAT (June 2021) | Jeff Geerling, about PoE hats, the /sys/devices/platform/rpi-poe-power-supply@0/power_supply/rpi-poe/current_now file is in microAmps (.000001A), so my interpretation of the data has got to be incorrect.
Also, the datasheet for the CM4 has current in either milli or micro amps for all data.
https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/cm4/cm4-datasheet.pdf

Therefore my interpretation was very wrong. The current draw reported by the PI itself is never above 2A, even when activating the 4G module.

Now, all that really means is that the power going through the CM4 and/or being reported to the CM4 is not a problem. There could be power routing accross the mainboard directly to the 4G module. I’m no PCBologist, though.

If my batteries have a very low cutoff, say 7A, that means the 4G module spikes it to 5A usage at that time, plus the 1.8ish on the board, plus some overhead/loss, we hit the limit and bang.

I’ll pull out a multimeter and buy my electrician/Hardware engineer neighbor a beer and reply when i’ve got some conclusions on the power-draw.

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OK! So, I figured out the problem.
Only 1 battery slot working.
When I hit 0% battery, I can just swap their positions and be back to 100%.
So while I’ve been complaining about 3.5-4hrs of battery runtime…realistically I should be getting double that with these batteries.

Sent an email to clockworkpi, hopefully I get some good news about a replacement part. Only had the uConsole a little over a week.

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Not a great outlook, ordered also the 4g edition there. When did you order your uConsole?

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Had this problem too but with either mixxx software or a power draining thing through usb i find that if its plugged into power through usbc, then it stops it from powering off, some cases you can take the power cable out after the initial start up

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I ordered it Jul 25 2023, CM4+LTE. If you’re following the shipping related thread, my order# was 222xx

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ClockworkPi already let me know via email that they’ll be sending me a new battery module. No tracking yet, but considering the uConsole had 2day shipping, I anticipate I should have the new battery module soon.

I’m hesitant to make any more runtime comments until I have a fully functional battery module, though.

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Yeah, if it’s plugged in at init, some batteries can handle the 4g module. The amazon batteries will cutoff randomly if 4g is enabled at all, but batteries from brick and mortar stores seem to handle it better.

Only the unprotected batteries i bought from a vape shop can handle 4g being enabled on battery.

But again, my battery module is not working properly. I’m no electrician, but maybe having a second battery will stabilize things for me. Will update when it’s arrived.

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I can run the Pi 4B on cell phone charger battery no problem, the uConsole has LCD and 4G will be more power hungry, but I still think a pair of good 18650 can give over 2hrs., 3000mah x 2 is not too small if you got a genuine pair, and I expected up to 5hrs. with everything turned on, a regular cell phone with a 3ah cell can last half day. I believe either you got a bad battery, or the power management on the uConsole is not working properly, report battery usage wrong.

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There are 2 sets of 4 pins connectors on the battery board, with few components on board, first I believe they are resistors and temperature sensor, but when I check the schematic on Gitbut I found the 2 4 pins connectors are 2 pins shorted together each to simply provide + and - without any current limiting and protection. On a normal rechargeable Lithium cell for cell phone and camera we have 3-4 contacts for providing electricity, current and temperature monitoring where it is lacking on the uConsole, so that use of protected cells is a safety precaution, but the resolution of the diagram is too low I can’t see clearly what pin goes where so that I could be wrong. I believe someone with a 3D printer and some experience on electronics DIY can make a carrier for 3 cells, and move the temperature sensor if any closer to the cells for better protection, there is enough space for that. Overall I’ve an impression that those who created the uConsole missed out some details that affect how the unit performs in real life, antenna placement is the other one I mentioned earlier.

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Ive checked my batteries and i do not have this issue too, im guessing its a faulty part on your end

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That’s not good, I assumed it would have a proper charging circuit. Might have to get a charging module off ali express and bodge it in :face_with_spiral_eyes:

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I’m using the 4g module on my cm4 exclusively as the wifi antenna works very poorly, and i dont have any issues. I’m using these batteries and get between 5-8 hours of battery life depending on what I’m doing on the device: NITECORE NL1835LTHP Cold Weather 18650 Battery

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Yes Nitecore cells are good. Please share your experience with the 4G, how did you make it to work ?

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You mentioned you used 4G mainly, so did you use the original stick on antenna on the same place ? I checked some product photos that there is an opening next to the 4G module with a rectangular piece to cover up, is that piece plastic or metal ? if plastic can you stick the antenna on it instead, if can do I believe this will give the best reception, but since I don’t have the unit on hand I can only guess.