Jetson Xavier NX: System throttled due to Over-current

[violator86]

Hello
While the detectors (deepstream-emotion/gaze-app) are running, I get the system notification “System throttled due to Over-current” - warnings in online and offline mode - processing of the video stream from the webcam, and video files, respectively.
Judging by the graphs, the reason is the lack of current (see attached images).

I have several questions:

1. Is it possible to ignore these warnings (wouldn’t it be harmful to ignore these warnings)?
2. can the use of a more powerful power supply lead to damage to the power circuit in particular, or to the entire Jetson as a whole?
3. what can be fraught with software removal of the current consumption limit (yes, I have seen similar topics on the forum, however, this question causes the greatest concern)?

The used power supply is standard from the delivery set: voltage 19V, current 2.37A (see attached images).

Hardware:
Jetson Xavier NX

Software (JetPack 5.1):

professorx@ubuntu:~/jetsonUtilities$ ./jetsonInfo.py
NVIDIA NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX Developer Kit
  L4T 35.2.1 [JetPack UNKNOWN]
    Ubuntu 20.04.5LTS
    Kernel Version: 5.10.104-tegra
  CUDA 11.4.315
    CUDA Architecture: 7.2
  OpenCV version: 4.5.4
    OpenCV Cuda: NO
  CUDNN: 8.6.0.166
  TensorRT: 8.5.2.2
  Vision Works: NOT_INSTALLED
  VPI: 2.2.4
  Vulcan: 1.3.204
professorx@ubuntu:~/jetsonUtilities$

Over-current graph

power supply

p.s. Thanks in advance,
Eugene

[WayneWWW]

please check

The error message "System throttling due to over-current" appears when running YOLOv4

Need to make some clarifications for this issue. The OC throttling case also appears in jetpack4.4.1. The real cause that makes you feel this issue does not happen on jp4.4.1 is because there was no “OC alarm notification” mechanism implemented in jp4.4.1. Thus, jp4.5 and jp4.4.1 actually both have oc throtting. The oc throtting is due the the hardware limitation of NX module. We currently set OC limit to 3.6A to protect the NX hardware. The suggestion to prevent the OC throtting not…

[violator86]

System throttled due to over-current?

hi all, could you please have the workaround to increase instantaneous OC limit, from 3.6A to 5A; this 5A workaround should still acceptable with hardware aspect. please have below command to set 5A instantaneous OC limit: for example, # echo 5000 > /sys/devices/c250000.i2c/i2c-7/7-0040/iio:device0/crit_current_limit_0 looking forward your feedbacks whether this approach works or not. thanks!

?

[violator86]

Hello
Unfortunately, the command does not work, a message is displayed stating that the directory is not available:

professorx@ubuntu:~$ sudo echo 5000 > /sys/devices/c250000.i2c/i2c-7/7-0040/iio:device0/crit_current_limit_0
bash: /sys/devices/c250000.i2c/i2c-7/7-0040/iio:device0/crit_current_limit_0: No such file or directory
professorx@ubuntu:~$

p.s. I also found mentions that this command does not work for another user on JP5.1, as well as a mention of your colleague about the maximum current of 5A on JP5.1:

Jetson XAVIER NX (Jetpack 5.1) System throttled due to overcurrent

Thank You! I just want to confirm one thing. I saw this solution for jetpack 4.5, will this work for jetpack 5.1? # echo 5000 > /sys/devices/c250000.i2c/i2c-7/7-0040/iio:device0/crit_current_limit_0 Although I did check that c250000 folder is not present in devices. Thanks

Jetson XAVIER NX (Jetpack 5.1) System throttled due to overcurrent

Hi, The command rise the OC limit to 5A. But the default setting in JetPack 5.1 is already 5A. We are checking this issue internally. Will share more information with you later. Thanks

[WayneWWW]

Hi,

If you are on rel-35, then you don’t need to apply this command. The rel-35 already uses 5A by default.

[violator86]

@WayneWWW

rel-35

Can you please elaborate?

[WayneWWW]

Not sure what to elaborate here.

JP4 is using rel-32 branch. JP5 is using rel-35 branch. All jp5 release already set the OC limit of XNX to 5A.
It is okay that you cannot find that node to configure because there is no need to configure it at all.

[violator86]

I’m sorry, but for all the time I’ve been working with Jetson, I’ve gotten used to orienting myself in JetPack version numbers (but not in kernel versions), so I didn’t immediately understand the essence of the issue. Okay, I’ll try to take this information into account in the future.

However, I still have a burning question regarding the issuance of current limit warnings.
According to the data in the “Thermal / Power Monitor” panel in the “Jetson Power GUI” utility, the current limit warning should occur at 4A. But, it occurs even before reaching the value of the consumed current 4A.
The 5A current limit mentioned here (on the forum) seems to be a critical value already.

And these warnings arise already when only one detector is working: a look or emotions.

Is it possible to somehow solve this problem?

Screenshots in attached files:

Screenshots

[WayneWWW]

Hi,

There is no solution to “fix” this problem.
This problem is simply indicating your usecase has exceed the max load Xavier NX can take. You can only adjust the power model and also see if you can adjust your usecase.

[violator86]

@WayneWWW

You can only adjust the power model and also see if you can adjust your usecase.

Do you mean the selection of Jetson’s operating mode: power and number of CPU cores used - “10W 4 CORE”, “20W 6 CORE”, etc.?

In general, is the current limit at the software level or at the hardware level?
I don’t need secrets, but I just want to know how safe it is to use a more powerful power supply (19V 4.37A vs. 19V 2.37A supplied with the Jetson Xavier NX).

[violator86]

Hello
Still, I would like to hear the answer, please.

Jetson Xavier NX: System throttled due to Over-current

Do you mean the selection of Jetson’s operating mode: power and number of CPU cores used - “10W 4 CORE”, “20W 6 CORE”, etc.? In general, is the current limit at the software level or at the hardware level? I don’t need secrets, but I just want to know how safe it is to use a more powerful power supply (19V 4.37A vs. 19V 2.37A supplied with the Jetson Xavier NX).

My message was on April 1st, BUT, this has nothing to do with “April Fools Day” / “Joke Day”.
Thanks in advance.

[WayneWWW]

Hi,

Do you mean the selection of Jetson’s operating mode: power and number of CPU cores used - “10W 4 CORE”, “20W 6 CORE”, etc.?

Yes.

In general, is the current limit at the software level or at the hardware level?

Hardware level limit. The more current will damage the board.

[violator86]

Hello!
Thanks for the answer!
I still have one question, is it possible to disable the output of warnings about overcurrent, will it damage the device?
If I understand the situation correctly, warnings are issued before the critical current is reached ( Jetson Xavier NX: System throttled due to Over-current - #9 by violator86 ).
p.s. I will be using the power supply that came with the Xavier NX (19V 4.37A, see the photo of the power supply in the first post of this thread).

[WayneWWW]

Are you talking about disable the notification shown up on GUI or you are talking about disable whole mechanism?

[violator86]

Hello!
I mean disabling dropdown notifications in the GUI.
I do not want to disable the entire protection mechanism.
See screenshots in this post:

Jetson Xavier NX: System throttled due to Over-current

I’m sorry, but for all the time I’ve been working with Jetson, I’ve gotten used to orienting myself in JetPack version numbers (but not in kernel versions), so I didn’t immediately understand the essence of the issue. Okay, I’ll try to take this information into account in the future. However, I still have a burning question regarding the issuance of current limit warnings. According to the data in the “Thermal / Power Monitor” panel in the “Jetson Power GUI” utility, the current limit warning…

As far as I understand correctly, drop-down notifications are not yet a critical situation?
If I ignore the warnings, will it harm the device?
p.s. Shortly after posting my question, I installed system updates, the overcurrent notifications stopped appearing (but I haven’t had time to test the Xavier NX under load yet).

[WayneWWW]

The notification will not harm the device. If the throttling is still working, then your module will be fine.

[violator86]

I’m sorry, I did not immediately pay attention to the fact that in the Jetson processor control menu there is an item to turn off drop-down notifications. If I turn off notifications in this way, will it definitely not harm the device?

screenshot

@WayneWWW

If the throttling is still working, then your module will be fine.

p.s. Notifications can only be from current throttling, or can others also occur?

[violator86]

I have been wanting to ask this question for a long time.
Why does Jetson Xavier experience power issues when gaze or emotion detectors are offline?
Offline - when the data source is a video file, not a video camera.
This phenomenon was both when operating the OS and software from the SD memory card, and from the SSD drive.
p.s. Thx in advance.

[WayneWWW]

Disabling the notification will not harm your device. The throttling still runs in the backgraound.

@violator86

gaze or emotion detectors are offline

If you think your usecase should not cause current issue, please share us the tegrastats result.

[violator86]

Hello!
The tegrastats logs for emotion and gaze detectors are attached. Just in case, let me remind you that this is in the “offline” mode, i.e. when I use video files as a source.
In the “online” mode, i.e. when using a webcam as a source, I did not notice a similar problem, so far.
deepstream-emotion-app_tegrastats.log (24.4 KB)
deepstream-gaze-app_tegrastats.log (16.7 KB)