Powerblock shutdown slow

ruckage

Hi,

I've just setup the powerblock on a raspberry pi 3b+ and have noticed that when using the power switch the shutdown takes a long time to complete before finally powering off.

Using the Powerblock to shutdown: 30 second.
Using command-line or shutdown option in the ES menu: 4 seconds

Is there anyway to make the powerblock shutdown faster as this is a huge difference.

Thanks.

thelostsoul

What is a powerblock?
And maybe fill out the standard information from https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

mitu

@thelostsoul said in Powerblock shutdown slow:

What is a powerblock?

It's a PCB to control the shutdown/startup of the Pi (https://blog.petrockblock.com/powerblock-raspberry-pi-power-switch/) . It's not strictly related to RetroPie (hence the topic category), so there's not really need for all the info from the read-me-first page.

ruckage

@thelostsoul said in Powerblock shutdown slow:

What is a powerblock?
And maybe fill out the standard information from https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

~~Why answer if you don't even know what a powerblock is ( if you'd looked you would see this part of the forum is specifically for powerblock and controlblock etc.).~~

edit: Sorry, I overreacted a bit there. Didn't mean to snap.

cyperghost

@ruckage said in Powerblock shutdown slow:

Using the Powerblock to shutdown: 30 second.
Using command-line or shutdown option in the ES menu: 4 seconds

Sounds like a delay in detecting routine.
I think it's better to tag @petrockblog ... He developed this device ;)

ruckage

@cyperghost said in Powerblock shutdown slow:

@ruckage said in Powerblock shutdown slow:

Using the Powerblock to shutdown: 30 second.
Using command-line or shutdown option in the ES menu: 4 seconds

Sounds like a delay in detecting routine.
I think it's better to tag @petrockblog ... He developed this device ;)

Thanks, good idea - hopefully @petrockblog may have some insight.

The shutdown does seem to start instantly, whatever is running at the time (ES/emulator) closes and you get the usual scroll of text output you'd expect but then it seems to pause halfway through the process before eventually continuing the shutdown and then powering off.

petrockblog

Sounds like something should be refined with the PowerBlock service handing. I need to take a look into that.

ruckage

@petrockblog Thanks for the reply.
I'm using the latest official retropie image if that helps. Also the powerblock isn't the latest model, it's one bought I from you in November of 2015 (rev 1.0) in case that could be an issue.
Actually I do have a brand new powerblock that I bought from you recently (rev 1.1) which I believe is the latest model so I'll try that out to rule it out as problem.

Edit: I tried the rev 1.1 board and it's the same, I didn't think it would be the problem but it was worth a try.

petrockblog

I assume that it somehow depends on the way the shutdown script or the PowerBlock service is integrated into Raspbian. I am afraid that I need to take a look into that to better understand the reason for that delay.

petrockblog

I have just published a new release of the PowerBlock driver. Besides a logger, and extended configurability, it also fixes the shutdown behaviour such that it only takes (again) about four seconds for a shutdown now:

https://blog.petrockblock.com/2018/08/03/update-powerblock-driver-1-5-0/

ruckage

@petrockblog
Thanks for the update, I appreciate it. I'll update it this afternoon and give it a try.

ruckage

@petrockblog
Sorry for not posting sooner. The updated version works perfectly - instant shutdown again :)
Thanks for fixing that.

petrockblog

Glad to hear that!

Beest

EDIT: Don’t mind me, nothing to see here.

petrockblog

All right.

I took a look into the sources of the ControlBlock driver. The same issue that caused the slow shutdown for the PowerBlock also existed there. I have fixed that now.