PowerBlock RPI3

[Goss66]

I cant seem to get powerblock shutdown working with RPi3. I have momentary button connected to switch pins on the powerblock. USB-c only into powerblock. RPi starts ok, I installed the driver from github.
Apart from that I didnt do anything else.
I press the button and nothing happens. How do I investigate if powerblock received the trigger ?

Continuity test on the button shows that when its pressed the contacts are shorted, when its released it disconnects. Do I need to change anything in the config file for momentary button ?

[petrockblog]

@Goss66 Hi! Sorry that I missed your post. I messed up my watching settings of this thread.

To rule out any issues with the button and if you have it, you can use a jumper wire instead of a switch to open and close the "switch" pins on the PowerBlock.

The PowerBlock driver writes its logs to /var/log/syslog. You can read it out, e.g., with

grep 'powerblockservice' /var/log/syslog

Maybe that gives you some more insights?

The PowerBlocks decides for momentary or toggle button behaviour during the first 2.5 seconds when pressing the button in OFF state. If the duration from "not pressed" to "pressed" and back to "not pressed" is at most 2.5 seconds then the PowerBlock assumes that it is a momentary button.
In other words: If you press the momentary longer than 2.5 seconds for switching the RPi on, then the PowerBlock wrongly assumes that it is a toggle button.
From your description it sounds as if this would not be your issue, but I wanted to mention it just in case.

If the PowerBlock service is correctly running, the LED should switch to a steady state during booting up. If it keeps on pulsing then there is eventually something broken with the driver installation.

[Goss66]

@petrockblog said in PowerBlock RPI3:

grep 'powerblockservice' /var/log/syslog

I checked the logs and all I can see is log entries when system was rebooted manually. No other entires. Funnily enough, system wont boot until I press the button, so button seems to be working. Its probably hanging somewhere in the firmware on uC ?

Mar 11 11:51:14 raspberrypi powerblockservice: Setting RPi status signal to HIGH
Mar 11 17:10:03 raspberrypi powerblockservice: Starting PowerBlock driver, version 2.0.0
Mar 11 17:10:05 raspberrypi powerblockservice: Shutdown is ACTIVATED
Mar 11 17:10:05 raspberrypi powerblockservice: Shutdown Pin is 18
Mar 11 17:10:05 raspberrypi powerblockservice: Status Pin is 17
Mar 11 17:10:05 raspberrypi powerblockservice: Setting RPi status signal to HIGH

[Goss66]

@petrockblog
Connected LED. When I press the button initially, it boots the system and I can SSH to it normally, but status LED on the powerblock is still fading in and out.

[petrockblog]

@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?