Powerblock switches on and only pulses. Does not shutdown. All drivers installed.

Dr Excess

Hi there, I adopted a half finished NES retropie project and so am trying to get it working.

I reflashed a new image for the pi and have retropie working flawlessly on the pi.

The NES already had the wires cut out with pins added ready to add to GPIO / Powerblock connectors, white and orange being used for LED and red and black being used power switch.

I installed the powerblock software using the one liner, all looked good.

pi@retropie:~ $ wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/petrockblog/PowerBlock/master/install.sh | sudo bash
--2020-12-14 12:54:37--  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/petrockblog/PowerBlock/master/install.sh
Resolving raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)... 151.101.16.133
Connecting to raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)|151.101.16.133|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 2059 (2.0K) [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘STDOUT’

-                   100%[===================>]   2.01K  --.-KB/s    in 0.002s

2020-12-14 12:54:37 (854 KB/s) - written to stdout [2059/2059]

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
git is already the newest version (1:2.20.1-2+deb10u3).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Cloning into 'PowerBlock'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 16, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (16/16), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (14/14), done.
remote: Total 16 (delta 1), reused 9 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (16/16), 8.51 KiB | 2.13 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (1/1), done.
[ ok ] Starting powerblock (via systemctl): powerblock.service.
Installation of PowerBlock service done.
[SUCCESS] The PowerBlock driver executable is installed
[SUCCESS] The PowerBlock service is running
You can find the configuration file at /etc/powerblockconfig.cfg.

Now, with the power cable in the powerblock if the switch is off / open the pi stays off. If I press the switch then the pi turns on and the led begins to pulse slowly. However that's all that happens.

The PI during this time is working flawlessly in Emulationstation.

If I press the switch again nothing at all happens and the LED just continues to pulse indefinitely until I shutdown, depress switch and pull power.

So the switch will only work to power on the pi and the LED only ever pulses.

What have I done wrong here? I tried the old method of install previously also and that just didnt work at all, the one liner appears to show success but clearly something is up. The fact the switch will turn it on and the LED is pulsing must mean I have the correct wires there... I'm a bit confused.

It's a Pi 3 B v2 and the PowerBlock is a rev 1.1

Thanks :D

Dr Excess

@dr-excess

Dont know if it will help but the LED works fine if attached to 6 & 8, (and the relevant code added to boot config) and I've checked the switch using a multimeter (red/ black) and it behaves as expected, continuity when pressed in and open when not.

The issue must lie in the software.

petrockblog

Hi, sorry for this delayed reply!

If the status LED ever pulses, this is a clear indication that the PowerBlock does not get the status signal from the Raspberry Pi.The console output from your post above shows that the driver seems to be installed successfully.

To isolate the cause for this behaviour I would advice to first disconnect everything from the Raspberry and the PowerBlock except the status LED and power switch. Even the power switch can be cut down to simply shorting the two "switch" pins on the PowerBlock. Shorted switch pins signal a "power on" to the PowerBlock.

Can you post an image of your hardware setup?

Are you using a toggle or a momentary switch? I assume that you are using a momentary switch from your last post, right? Depending on when you bought that PowerBlock, it could be that it does not support momentary switched. We have added that functionality last year starting from 09/05/2019 (see also https://www.petrockblock.com/2019/09/06/powerblock-controlblock-support-toggle-momentary-buttons/)

I could prepare an image with the recent RetroPie version and the PowerBlock driver installed. In that way we could be sure that the software part is working as expected. Would that be of any help for you?

Dr Excess

@petrockblog

Hi there, thanks for reply.

It's a toggle switch but can easily be converted to a momentary. It's the front switch on a Nintendo but it's just a switch, open when off and closed when on with 2 wires and has been confirmed to work with a multimeter. When the switch is opened (off) after the pi is booted into retropie the powerblock doesn't correspond at all.

Yes I've tried the one line, I've tried the older line by line, and I've also tried with the built in retropie install driver script. I've done each with a fresh install each time to ensure no conflicts.

In each case it says its installed successfully, but all I get is pulsing and it will only work to power on pie.

"I could prepare an image with the recent RetroPie version and the PowerBlock driver installed. In that way we could be sure that the software part is working as expected. Would that be of any help for you?"

If you have a pie image that has powerblock driver installed for Pi 3 B v.2 I'd be happy to try it.

Thanks

petrockblog

@dr-excess Hi! Would you please contact me via the contact form at https://www.petrockblock.com/contact/? The image is ready for download, but I do not want the download link to be publicly available.

Dr Excess

@petrockblog I actually did a couple of days ago with this exact issue.

I'll write again though, perhaps an issue with your contact form?

petrockblog

@dr-excess Ok, got it. I have just sent you a reply with the link.

To only have one line of conversation I archived your other email when I saw that we continue our conversation on this forum. I did not think of that email anymore.

The contact form is working fine :-)

Dr Excess

@petrockblog

Hey, I used your image but still same issue.

I've uploaded a video to imgur showing whats going on.

I know the pi looks like there's a lot connected to it, but actually there's nothing, it's all extension cables.

When the switch is on / closed and power is added, the powerblock will power up the pi and the led will pulse.

If I turn off the switch nothing at all will happen, it will stay powered.

https://imgur.com/gallery/u7NtMfJ

petrockblog

@dr-excess Too bad.
I can offer you to send you a replacement for free, of course. Please contact me via email - I need your order number and address. As soon as I got that your spare PowerBlock will be on its way!
What do you think?

Dr Excess

@petrockblog that would be great if I were the original purchaser but unfortunately it came with the nes project so I guess I'm shit out of luck.

I mean, I'm not sure how it makes any real difference, the PowerBlock is the same age as it would have been otherwise but I do understand, it's what retailers do.

The original guy actually never got it working either, sadly I think it is may be a why he cancelled the project and sold it to me. Oh well, I shall find another solution.

Chef Otis

@Dr-Excess I'm having the same issue, did you ever get it working?

petrockblog

@Chef-Otis said in Powerblock switches on and only pulses. Does not shutdown. All drivers installed.:

@Dr-Excess I'm having the same issue, did you ever get it working?

Hi @Dr-Excess ,

please open a separate thread. That makes it easier to keeps things separate. I am happy to help!
Besides the issue itself, please describe your hardware and software setup. Some console output often also helps to further understand what is going on.