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    Issue with Voltage Drop when Using Controlblock

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved ControlBlock, PowerBlock & Co.
    raspberry pi 3bcontrolblocklightningbolt
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    • 0
      0mni
      last edited by

      I am using a Controlblock with a Raspberry PI 3 B. I have the Controlblock (http://petrockblog.storenvy.com/products/13969497-controlblock) plugged directly on top of the Raspberry Pi with the GPIO pins. I have the raspberry Pi overclocked in order to be able to run N64 Roms. Here is my current config.txt

      arm_freq=1250
      gpu_freq=500
      v3d_freq=525
      gpu_mem=256
      core_freq=500
      sdram_freq=500
      sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
      over_voltage=5
      over_voltage_sdram=4

      I am measuring the 5V from the GPIO pins (GND and one of the 5V).

      With the Controlblock connected, and I run a simple stress test.

      while true; do vcgencmd measure_clock arm; vcgencmd measure_temp; sleep 10; done& stress -c 4 -t 900s

      I have tried this with two different power supplies.

      https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00IKUYANK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (Mine was an older version, looks different, that has 18AWG wires)
      With my 3.5A 18AWG 5V adapter I get the following results.

      I measure around ~4.8 V with intermittent drops around ~4.7V and then rises above ~4.8V before it repeats. This causes the lighting bolt icon to appear on the screen and the clock speed to constantly drop/cycle.

      When I have the Controlblock card removed, just the Raspberry PI, with the same settings/test.

      I measure around 4.94V with intermittent drops to around 4.88V, with no lighting bolt.

      https://www.buyapi.ca/product/wall-adapter-power-supply-5-25v-dc-2-4a-usb-micro-b/
      With my 5.25V 2.4A adapter I get the following results.

      I measure around ~4.9 V with intermittent drops around ~4.7V and then rises above ~4.9V before it repeats. This causes the lighting bolt icon to appear on the screen and the clock speed to constantly drop/cycle.

      When I have the Controlblock card removed, just the Raspberry PI, with the same settings/test.

      I measure around 4.96V and appears to be fairly steady.

      I know why the lighting bolt appears, as it indicates a voltage issue when dropping below ~4.75V.

      I am using Raspbian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie) w/ Retropie 4.2 (issue occurred on 4.1 as well.)

      Linux retropi 4.4.50-v7+ #970 SMP Mon Feb 20 19:18:29 GMT 2017 armv7l GNU/Linux

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      • space cadetS
        space cadet
        last edited by

        You need a power supply with a little more amps to push the voltage

        0 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • 0
          0mni @space cadet
          last edited by

          @space-cadet I have purchased three power supplies, all with increasing Amp and Voltage. If you have a power supply in mind that can push more than 5.25V at 2.4 amps, I would appreciate it. Also have tried a 5v at 3 amps.

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          • R
            RetroShark
            last edited by

            For some reason, this seems to have changed in the last few months. I updated ControlBlock service and latest Raspberry Pi (Retropie) version and the bolt appeared. I only had it months ago when using a poor quality USB cable, but now even with a really good USB cable it now appears. Very strange.

            Could the ControlBlock voltage drop have increased with more recent software /service updates?

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            • R
              RetroShark
              last edited by

              From measuring the USB power drain from the power supply (inline USB measuring) the ControlBlock2 is pulling 5.06V and 0.421A when the yellow warning is in the upper right corner. I didn't measure the 5V output from the Pi or ControlBlock itself as I don't have my multimeter here.

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