Docs: join the list item

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

.claude/skills/steam-frame/SKILL.md

@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ desktop or panels.
 | Mac GUI over all of this | `README.md` → Frame Control | `scripts/frame-ui.sh` |
 | iPhone/iPad app (server runs on the Frame, `FRAME_LOCAL=1`) | `docs/iphone.md` | `ios/`, `ui/local-bin/ssh` |
 | Frame unreachable, Wi-Fi dead, Steam won't start (doctor runbook) | `docs/frame-doctor.md` | — |
+| Power draw, heat, fan, battery wear, quiet-mode plan | `docs/power-and-heat.md` | — |
 | Recovery images, factory reset, boot loops | `docs/recovery-and-images.md`, `docs/how-the-frame-works.md` | `~/Downloads/steam-frame-recovery/` |
 | Test without the headset (the Frame OS image's own sshd) | `tests/frame-container/README.md` | `tests/frame-container/frame-image.sh` |
 | What's still unverified | `docs/open-questions.md` | — |

docs/open-questions.md

@@ -164,4 +164,6 @@ Astra (xhigh), 2026-09-28.
 - **Off the LAN:** a sleeping Frame's Tailscale can't receive anything, so
   something awake on the LAN has to send the packet (for example the
   EdgeRouter's `etherwake`, already used for lxso2, or the Mac).
-
+- **Staying on instead of sleeping:** what draws power and heat while idle, the
+  controls, and the step-by-step plan are in
+  [power-and-heat.md](power-and-heat.md).

docs/power-and-heat.md

@@ -0,0 +1,175 @@
+# Power, heat and what you can control
+
+What the Frame spends power on while it's on, where the heat comes from, and
+which controls exist. Everything here was **read** on the Frame on
+2026-09-29 (BUILD_ID 20260925.6191901). Nothing was changed. Numbers under
+load haven't been measured yet.
+
+## Sensors you can read without sudo
+
+| What | Where |
+|---|---|
+| Power per rail (W ×10⁶) | hwmon `max34417_10`: `vph` (whole system), `s1c`, `s3c`, `s6c`. `max34417_12`: `apc0`/`apc1`/`apc2` (CPU clusters), `nsp1`. `max34417_1a`: `gfx` (GPU), `nsp2`, `bob`. Each `powerN_input` has a `powerN_label` |
+| Board temperatures (m°C) | `/sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:device0/in_temp_*_input`: battery, left and right display, heatsink fins, fan exhaust, Wi-Fi, flash, 40-pin connector, nRF radio, PMIC and charger die |
+| CPU, GPU and modem zones | `/sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone*/{type,temp}` (per-core top and bottom, `gpuss-*`, `nsp*`, `video`) |
+| Charger input and charge current | `iio:device0/in_current_pm8550b_{iin,ichg}_fb_input` (µA) |
+| Battery | `/sys/class/power_supply/max1720x_bat_7-36/uevent` (cycle count, health, current) |
+| Fan | hwmon `slg4ax46073v`: `fan1_input` (RPM), `pwm1` (%) |
+| Proximity (worn or not) | `/sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:device2/in_proximity_raw` |
+| Why the fan ramped | `journalctl -u deckard-fan-control` (`C3 temperature of 95.36 greater than max 95! Setting fan to max speed.`) |
+
+The right display thermistor reads −16 °C, so it's absent or broken. Ignore it.
+
+## Idle baseline (2026-09-29 08:05)
+
+Conditions:
+- On the 12 V USB-C charger, battery 100%, 5 cycles.
+- Headset off-head, SteamVR in standby, backlight 0.
+- Steam, SteamVR, the tracking service and one Chromium (Mac view) running.
+- `pauseCompositorOnStandby` = false, set by another session this morning for testing.
+
+30 s average:
+
+| Rail | W | Notes |
+|---|---|---|
+| `vph` (everything) | **4.71** | |
+| CPU `apc0+1+2` | 0.61 | 91% idle overall |
+| GPU `gfx` | 0.25 | GPU at 366 of 903 MHz |
+| NSP `nsp1+2` | 0.08 | Neural and DSP processors |
+| `s1c` + `s3c` + `s6c` + `bob` | 1.01 | SoC, memory and peripheral supplies (which rail is which isn't documented) |
+| Unmetered remainder | ~2.8 | Cameras, display link, Wi-Fi, fan, sensors, conversion losses (inferred) |
+
+Temperatures:
+
+| Sensor | °C |
+|---|---|
+| CPU cores | 40–45 |
+| Board (heatsink, Wi-Fi, flash) | 34–37 |
+| Left display thermistor | 46 (the warmest) |
+| Charger IC | 37 |
+| Battery | 23 |
+
+The fan ran at about 8,350 RPM at `pwm1` 41.
+
+What was running while idle (`top`):
+- The compositor was at about 14% of one core.
+- Steam was at about 7%.
+- The tracking service (XRService) was at about 4%, and still had 4 camera nodes open (`/dev/video0,3,9,13`).
+- vrserver and gamescope were at about 3% each.
+
+## Why it's warm while "doing nothing"
+
+- **The compositor keeps rendering in standby** when
+  `power.pauseCompositorOnStandby` is false. The default is true. Check
+  `~/.config/openvr/config/steamvr.vrsettings`.
+- **The tracking cameras stay open in standby.** XRService holds them so
+  tracking resumes instantly.
+- **The fan never goes below 40% on the charger.** That's by design in
+  `/usr/share/deckard-fan-control/deckard-config.yaml`:
+  `fan_charging_min_speed: 40`, against `fan_min_speed: 30` on battery.
+  Charging, including topping up at 100%, heats the charger IC and battery
+  area.
+- **The display link stays up at backlight 0.** The DSI connector reports
+  `dpms=On` while the backlight is 0, so the panels are dark but still driven.
+- **Heavy load reaches the throttle limit.** On 2026-09-28 at 22:09–22:12,
+  cores C3, C5 and C7 hit 95 °C and the fan went to max. The cause wasn't
+  investigated. It came around a Steam restart after the reboot.
+
+## Controls
+
+No sudo needed:
+
+| Control | How | Effect | Caveat |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| Steam idle sleep | `scripts/keep-awake.sh`, `system_idle_suspend_{ac,battery}_sec` | When it sleeps | Sleep has no remote wake |
+| Compositor pause in standby | `vrcmd --set-settings-bool power.pauseCompositorOnStandby 1` | Stops rendering while off-head | Other sessions toggle it for testing, so coordinate |
+| Screens-off delay | `vrcmd --set-settings-float power.turnOffScreensTimeout <s>` | Backlight off sooner or later | Default 5 s |
+| Stop the whole VR stack | `systemctl --user stop steamvr.service` | Cameras, tracking and compositor off | Also stops the gamescope VR session and Steam (seen 2026-09-28), so panels and Mac view go too. The restart cost hasn't been measured |
+| Background apps | Close Mac-view Chromium, stop Lepton containers (`podman`) | Less CPU and memory | Mac view needs relaunching |
+| Brightness | Steam settings | Panel power while worn | — |
+
+Needs root (reset at reboot unless made persistent):
+
+| Control | Where | Effect |
+|---|---|---|
+| CPU governor and max frequency per cluster | `/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy{0,2,5,7}/scaling_{governor,max_freq}` (`powersave`, `conservative`, `schedutil`, …) | Caps CPU power and heat |
+| Take cores offline | `/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuN/online` | Fewer active cores |
+| GPU max frequency | `/sys/class/devfreq/3d00000.gpu/max_freq` | Caps GPU power (it hurts VR smoothness when worn) |
+| Fan curve | The service reads `/usr/share/…/deckard-config.yaml`, which is on the read-only rootfs. It could be overridden with a systemd drop-in pointing at a copy in `/etc` | Quieter fan while charging, but hotter parts |
+| Charge current | `pm8550b-charger` `constant_charge_current` (1.0 A, max 1.2 A) | Writability unverified. There's **no** charge-limit or end-threshold file, so the battery sits at 100% on the charger |
+
+None of these have been tried yet.
+
+## Plan: leave it on, but cheaply
+
+Goal: the Frame stays on the charger, reachable over SSH, drawing as little
+power and making as little heat, fan wear and battery wear as possible while
+nobody wears it. When someone puts it on, everything comes back quickly.
+Sleeping isn't an option until remote wake works (see
+[open-questions.md](open-questions.md#remote-wake-2026-09-28)).
+
+Rules for every step:
+- Change one thing at a time. Snapshot the setting first, measure 5 minutes
+  (`vph` plus temperatures and fan), then restore it unless it's being kept.
+- Freeze the Steam and SteamVR health-check trackers first
+  ([frame-doctor.md](frame-doctor.md) §4).
+- Anything that could leave the Frame unreachable, and every root change, waits
+  until someone is home to recover it.
+- `power.pauseCompositorOnStandby` belongs to another session's testing. Ask
+  before touching it.
+
+### 1. Measure (read-only, safe remotely)
+
+- [x] Idle baseline off-head on the charger (above).
+- [ ] A sampler script (`scripts/frame-power-sample.sh`) that logs `vph`, the
+      CPU/GPU rails, key temperatures, fan RPM, the proximity sensor and the
+      charger current every few seconds to a CSV. Every later step uses it.
+- [ ] The same baseline worn, idle in the home space.
+- [ ] Under load: Mac view streaming, and one VR game.
+- [ ] On battery (unplugged) to separate charging heat from everything else.
+- [ ] Find what caused the 95 °C spike on 2026-09-28 22:09–22:12 (journal and
+      process history around the Steam restart).
+
+### 2. Settings without sudo (one at a time, measured)
+
+- [ ] Compositor pause in standby (after asking the owning session).
+- [ ] Shorter screens-off delay.
+- [ ] Stop `steamvr.service` while off-head. Measure the saving and how long it
+      takes to come back, since it also stops the gamescope session and Steam.
+- [ ] Close Mac-view Chromium and stop idle Lepton containers.
+- [ ] Steam's "never sleep on AC" (`system_idle_suspend_ac_sec = 0`), keeping
+      the battery timer. Confirm the displays go dark.
+
+### 3. Root settings (at home, with approval)
+
+- [ ] CPU: `powersave` or a lower max frequency while off-head.
+- [ ] Fan: a copy of the fan config with a lower charging minimum, through a
+      systemd drop-in. Only if temperatures in steps 1–2 leave headroom.
+- [ ] Battery: check whether charge current is writable. There's no charge
+      limit, so the fallback is a Home Assistant smart plug that lets the
+      battery cycle between roughly 80% and 100%.
+- [ ] Decide which root changes to make persistent (drop-ins in `/etc`, which
+      survive SteamOS updates, unlike `/usr`).
+
+### 4. A quiet mode
+
+- [ ] Put the kept settings behind one switch: off-head for N minutes → quiet
+      mode; on-head (proximity sensor) or a Frame Control request → normal.
+- [ ] Run it from Frame Control / keep-awake, not a hand-edited setting, so it
+      can always be undone.
+- [ ] Add a doctor check that reports whether quiet mode is on and that it
+      restores cleanly.
+
+### 5. Remote wake (at home)
+
+- [ ] Charger wake: during confirmed sleep, plug in, unplug, and switch the
+      charger's AC off and on, one at a time.
+- [ ] Controller-button wake.
+- [ ] RTC dark wake (root timer that wakes, checks for queued work, sleeps).
+- [ ] Re-test WoWLAN after each SteamOS or kernel update.
+
+### 6. Doctor script
+
+- [ ] Turn [frame-doctor.md](frame-doctor.md) into `scripts/frame-doctor.sh`:
+      read-only checks by default, fixes only with a flag, and **ask** fixes
+      never automatic. Add the sensor reads from this page.