Changing habits in power generation and consumption are making power grids in some markets unstable, with brownouts, supply interruptions and even blackouts increasing in frequency. Much of the instability is caused by shifting user habits as workers remain at home, the adoption of renewable generation technologies which is seeing homeowners generating solar or wind energy and then selling that to the grid, and the adoption of electric vehicles which is seeing users place high demand on power infrastructure for vehicle charging.

For IoT devices that are hardwired to less reliable grids and for battery devices that run out of power, the consequences of unexpected power loss can be substantial. In the case of abrupt power outages devices often suffer data loss and damage to the file system. This is because correct module power down can take some time to complete properly in a way that ensures all data is saved and the file system is ready for the power down.

To address this issue, Quectel has devised a feature that can reduce power down time to less than 100ms without causing file system damage. The feature can be applied to scenarios that might lead to abrupt outages. For example, if the module detects a falling motion it will complete the current access and stop writing new data in the file system and then switch off the power supply. In this scenario, the relevant feature pin will be triggered and the module will be powered off within 100ms, greatly mitigating the risk of data loss.

The capabilities of the new feature are detailed in a recent Quectel Masterclass which details the characteristics of the feature, how it can be implemented and provides examples of how IoT deployments can benefit. Presented by Stevan Stepanov, FAE at Quectel, the Masterclass can be viewed at: https://www.quectel.com/masterclass-library/protect-modules-unexpected-power-loss/