@hoeveler Hi, yes, you are right. It has greater access to the GPIOs and supports additional controller types besides arcade. Also, it does not have a DAC/amp.

BTW: Is the DAC/amp an important feature in your case?

@aside Unfortunately, that is not possible. The momentary switch pins on the ControlBlock are hard wired to the MCU on the ControlBlock itself for switching on and off.

It should work with the ControlBlock. It can provide up to 7 A.

@petrockblog Thank you. I've put in an order for a new CB since the newer version will come with a USBC. It looks like incompatibility is the issue. If you have the time I am willing to do some work on my end to see if I can get it going. In the end I will be using the newer CB when it comes in.

Thank you for your time.

Sorry for the late reply, and thank you for sharing your insights!

When working with setups with two power supplies, it is important to ensure that they share the same GND potential. Without a common GND connection, the devices won't have a shared reference point for their voltages. This can cause voltage mismatches, leading to unpredictable behavior such as flickering LEDs, unstable signals, or even hardware malfunctions.

Thanks for documenting your solution!

@Nino said in PowerBlock Status and Shutdown don’t work:

Ok... made some progress and want to share my insights.

If you want to use different than the default pins to connect the powerblock to the rpi you should NOT use the range of GPIO1 to GPIO8 for the status pin. These are per default driven HIGH. The others (including the defaults used by power block) are driven LOW. I tried to change that behaviour using the gpio=... and gpio_poweroff=... commands in config.txt without full success. After switching now to GPIO9 and GPIO25 the power block works (I disables SPI just to be sure because GPIO25 belongs to SPI per default).

@petrockblog Thanks for the reply.

Shorting the wires (just touching the signal and the ground together) doesn't solve the problem. I should have mentioned earlier that the controlblock works perfectly with my pi2, but I'm trying to upgrade.

I can't get the jtest to work. I can't find the command in /dev/input.

The more I'm playing around with this I think it is a problem with my retropie install, but I can't figure out what

@RSquaredPi Yes, absolutely right.

@RSquaredPi Hi, the ControlBlock supports up to 7 A. If you do not have any additional accessories connected you should be good to go.

@petrockblog

Hi,

I have the following usb devices connected
usb to 3.5mm jack converter
keyboard, mouse
xbox one controller

Though I've attempted the install without the xbox controller connected; with it connected, it appears to occupy /dev/input/js0, shifting the controlblock to js1+js2.

Kind regards

@Boum-01 Thanks! I will use this to further improve the driver.

@petrockblog said in Is Controlblock / powerblock tech support gone?:

@StuMcBill abi, I am sorry that I missed your posts. I messed up the notification settings. They should be corrected now 🤦‍♂️

No worries at all - glad everything is OK.

@CHfingertrap Hi, I will update the driver! See also https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/299255.
Sorry for this awful delay.

@mitu Thank you very much for all your support!!!

@StuMcBill Hi, I will update the driver! See also https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/299255.
Sorry for this awful delay.

@petrockblog said in Have I fried my Controlblock (or Pi5)?:

@StuMcBill If the Pi does not respond to a power button event, I would look for

The connection between the button and the ControlBlock: Do you see the same behavior with another button or, for example, just by using jumper wires like most simple buttons? The ControlBlock service installation: Does the ControlBlock LED stop pulsing and switch to a steady on state after booting? If not, the ControlBlock service is not running properly for some reason. The ControlBlock configuration: This is rare, but sometimes the power switch functionality is not enabled in the ControlBlock configuration in /etc/controlblockconfig.cfg.

Perhaps these items will give you a clue as to what is causing your observation?

Hi,

Thanks for the response.

I've not tried this, however, I have tried directly connected to GPIO of my Pi5 and my Pi4 - same behaviour - Controls work, but Power doesn't. I will check this I have tried toggling on and off in controlblock configuration - no change

I'll report back.

@papichulo I messed up my forum notification settings and I am sorry for this! I am replying just in case this is still an issue for you:

Maintained/latching switches for on my site with the ControlBlock rev. 3.4. Do you have any any special hardware setup? The ControlBlock switches from maintained/latching mode to momentary switch mode, if a logic low signal is observed within 2.5 seconds after pressing the switch for switching the Pi on. Do you observe the same behavior when you replace the button by simple jump wires to simulate a maintained button?

I have just updated the driver. It comes with better checks for GPIO tools now and should restore compatibility to previous RPi models.

@StuMcBill I am glad to hear that!

@Goss66 The fact that the LED is still fading in and out indicates that the communication between the RPi and the PowerBlock is not working for some reasons. It the the PowerBlock driver on the RPi that signal that the driver is loaded. In that moment the LED that is attached to the PowerBlock should change to a steady state.

Do you have other peripherals connected to the RPi? Or other device drivers that might interfere with the PowerBlock driver?