NB-IoT power

[Don-iot]

Hi, trying to save as much power as possible with GPy and NB-IoT. As output power is a factor that reduces battery life, I would like to lower it as much as possible. Is there a way to control the transmission power on the LTE module? We could possibly get signal strenght and force the power to be low, if the signal is good. At least that is my idea? Anyone tried it?

[Don-iot]

@jcaron Thanks a lot!

[jcaron]

@Don-iot This document is a bit old, and I believe involves the LTE-M version, but a quick glance through it does not reveal any such command.

You may try AT+CLAC and AT!="help" to list all generic and specific commands of the modem. See https://forum.pycom.io/topic/3549/important-update-regarding-lte-modem-updates/49 for hints on how to get the full list (which is very long).

[Don-iot]

Thanks @jcaron I am just trying to go beyond what you suggested. In our country LTE CAT-M1 is more frequent than NB-IoT so we are trying an approach that will save battery across these both technologies. We are already measuring signal strength and the devices are stationary, so I am thinking that if forcing the transmission to a lower level is just the matter of another AT-command, that would be very useful to test.

[jcaron]

@Don-iot IMHO it’s a lot more useful to reduce the amount of time and how often the device is awake, rather than trying to reduce power, which will only work in limited circumstances.

Make sure you use deep sleep as much as possible, along with PSM/eDRX, control the frequency of wake ups, and make sure they are as short as possible, you’ll almost certainly get better results.