Blinking Red Light Of Death

taiJones00

And it's not an issue with retro pie because I got it to work on my desktop monitor. It's just an issue of getting it to work on my pi grrl 2 setup

Efriim

Will you update me with a link to the build instuctions for the PiGrrl2?
What are the specifications of the charger you are using? output voltage and amps.
I think we will be able to figure this out, I don't doubt your abilities if you were to undertake them; a project like this.
If it were only the charger or sd card installation, I wouldn't want to miss this first.

Efriim

@taiJones00
I decided to read up on it, I like the wireless in the 3b+ and the touchscreen is nifty.
It looks like you already had the problem, the powerboost may not be able to power the 3b+.
I'll read some more and share my ideas when I find them.

Have you tried with a fully charged battery?

taiJones00

I used these instructions for building the pigrrl2 and the list of materials from the first few pages. https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/downloads/pdf/pigrrl-2.pdf?timestamp=1552587597

I don't know much about voltage and current but if I am right about there not being enough power supplied, I'll see If I can get a multimeter and learn.

I'm not actually using a charger but instead the adafruit 2.5 mAh polymer battery as described in the parts list. The battery should be fully charged since I haven't gotten a chance to really use it.

Also, I'll look into getting notifications for when you message. This forum isn't notifying me.

mitu

@taiJones00 said in Blinking Red Light Of Death:

This forum isn't notifying me.

You can configure how you receive notification in your profile settings.
There's also a notification message on the top-right corner of the forum page (over the bell icon) with the number of new notifications you have available - you can click on it and see if someone replied to your topics or mentioned you in a topic.

Efriim

I read around, it looks like there are a series of forum posts about powerboost 1000c only delivering 1A.

I believe it charges the battery at 1A maximum but can convert an efficient powersupply to 5V 1000mAh-2500mAh meaning it should be suitable. The battery may not be powerful enough though, and I can't explain why it wouldn't work plugged in. You did install the tft display right?

taiJones00

@Efriim Yep. I followed all the steps on my monitor and it should be good to go for my pi display. I have a 9v battery if you suggest using that instead

taiJones00

Wait. Wait a second. The powerboost is charing the 2.5 mAh battery? I haven't done that yet. Are you saying I have to plug in my raspberry pi usb adapter into the powerboost at the same time as the battery and then in about 30 minutes I should be good to play my pigrrl 2?

Efriim

@taiJones00 I read something about using a 9V step down setup successfully. Before you do, it would be a good idea to site that reference, and make sure that the 1000c can step-down. I'll update.

taiJones00

@Efriim Step down? I still have to study up on the fundamentals of electricity so I don't know any of these terms

Efriim

@taiJones00 I mistyped the measurement over time. The 1000c can convert 3.7V xxxxmAh battery to 5V 1000mA-2500mA current.

The battery while depleted may only give 3.2V so yeah charging it for a while with the battery connected may work.

The 3.7V to 5V that the Pi requires is called a step-up conversion. A 9V to 5V would be called a step-down.

taiJones00

@Efriim I'm going to try plugging the battery and the power adapter in at the same time now. Fingers crossed. I'll also try to decipher what you just said while the battery's charging

Efriim

I didn't learn very much in electricity, mAh (Milliamp Hours) is used for the ~~capacitance~~ capacity as it is an Amperage over time.

Volts and Watts and Amps and Impedance all with conversions I can not remember any of the little that I learned.

The power adapter(charger) is plugged into the powerboost which has the battery and pi attached right?
And the charger you are using, does it output 5V 2.5A?

taiJones00

@Efriim Sure is. So i'm dumb. I had the fear that I would send too much electricity to my components and damage them if I had both things plugged in. But I just plugged them both in and I have a yellow light in the charging area and a flashing red light in the low power area (I guess to reinforce that it's charging). We'll find out soon if this will work.

The battery is 3.7 V at 2500 mAh. This is the one the pigrrl 2 official tutorial said to use and it's the one that came with my pigrrl 2 kit. Should I use 5 V instead for the pi 3 b+?

Efriim

@taiJones00
If you unplug the wall charger there on the head of it is a label and somewhere it will read something like

Input  : AC 110V 7W
Output : DC 4.6V 900mA

sometimes they are impossible to read labels.
I had the overlooked that you used this charger to do the initial installation it should work fine.
Yes 5.1V and 2.5A is nominal.

It looks like the thing was designed with the battery in mind, but since it is a 3B+ it will use more amps and so doing a step-up conversion from 3.7 to 5V ~+variable amperage its probably going to be everything this battery has got.

taiJones00

@Efriim ...What kind of cantanese debockary is on this charger? Anyway, it's output: 5.1 V and 2.5 mAh

Efriim

@taiJones00
I don't want to mislead you though, I gleaned a lot of misinformation from what I read on all this in only a couple hours. If that battery doesn't work, I still don't know for certain that a different battery will work. I wouldn't try the 9V yet, because even though it is being converted, 9V is too much for a pi and could damage it.

taiJones00

@Efriim Well here's the thing. The very first time I hooked everything up, the power LED was blue and blue means it's working. Meaning, I probably just have a low battery

Yeah the last thing I want is to damage a pi. I have like 3 other projects to make for this reverse career fair and lest I waste $30 from a silly mistake

taiJones00

@Efriim This is actually pretty funny. I like that your profile picture is of an xbox 360 given the title of this post

Efriim

@taiJones00 I was looking for a picture to use in the retroarch-assets on my computer and the idea that raspberry pi succeeded the xbox360 made me laugh. Because of pi, like circles.