PI-Zero-Zeroborg doesn't start if connected to 9V Accu

Submitted by peter.demharter... on Fri, 04/14/2017 - 15:08

Forums:

Hi,

I had connected the zeroborg board and the PI Zero. I installed all the software (magpi issue 51, robot) with a usb/network dongle and the PI power supply. Here all works fine, all 4 motors run and the wireless rock candy connection works.
Then I unplugged the power supply and usb stuff (Mouse, ethernet etc). so that onyl the usb wireless candy is connected to to the PI zero usb port. I set the jumper on the zerborg according the getting started description.
But now, it seems, that the pi doesn't start (no green led), surprisingly, the rock candy wireless usb dongle is blinking and the zeroborg board is blinking (which ake sense :-).

Any ideas whats happen?

Many thx

Kind regards

Peter

piborg's picture

piborg

Fri, 04/14/2017 - 19:48

The ZeroBorg blinking suggests it is getting reset, it should only flash once at power-up, after which the LED is under software control.

My guess is that the battery is not producing enough power for the DC/DC to generate a stable 5V for the Raspberry Pi. This would cause the power to keep dipping too low, preventing the Pi for starting and causing the blinking LED on the ZeroBorg.

I would guess the 9V Accu is probably flat and needs a full recharge. If that does not solve it then the battery you are using might not be up to the task. We have not tried a 9V Accu so I do not know how good they actually are. We generally recommend the Powerex 300 mAh batteries as they have worked really well for us running Formula Pi :)

Subscribe to Comments for "PI-Zero-Zeroborg doesn't start if connected to 9V Accu"