The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Raspberry Pi & Dev Board => Topic started by: SJMarty on June 15, 2019, 07:46:11 pm
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I'm in the process of building my own Raspberry Pi-based control panel and have a question about power delivery. I have this (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075XMTQJC) power supply. I would like to use a Neutrik USB A/B Gender Changer/Pass-Through connector and the appropriate cables to power the Pi. I have done some testing and as soon as I introduce the Neutrik into the equation, the Pi starts complaining about low voltage. I have confirmed this is accurate with a USB power meter.
So, I'm wondering if anyone has tried to use a Neutrik connector for this purpose and if so, was it successful?
Thanks!
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so you are driving 5 volts through a cable (likely several feet long) into a coupler through another cable and into a pi a device... that sometimes needs up to 2 amps, and you wonder why it's having power problems?
i think any article you can google up regarding line loss is going to have your answer.
in a nutshell you are trying to drive a very low voltage along a very long line, through several connections (each having it's own small loss introduced)... with a small device like a mouse or keyboard that would consume say 100 milliamps , this wouldn't be a problem. you may not thing a connection is that big of a deal, but your adapter has one...the coupler has 2...the pi has one... couple that with the large load the pi requires, and the problem is exasperated manyfold.
this is precisely why the electric company uses high voltage in the wires that run to your house, but step down the power before it goes in the house.
what you should be doing is using a higher voltage supply (say 12 volts @ 2 amps or so) and running that a half mile from the plug into your control panel then using that 12 volts to power a DC-DC buck converter to get your 5 volts to run the pi. even if the cord from your 12 volt supply is 100 feet long and the voltage at the end had dropped to 7 volts because of how long it was...you can still get 5 volts out of it. not much you can do starting out with the 5 volts you need and losing it from there.
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I would forget the USB power all together and power it all from a mains socket outlet inside you panel fed via a IEC socket so you can still remove the power cord.
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I would forget the USB power all together and power it all from a mains socket outlet inside you panel fed via a IEC socket so you can still remove the power cord.
Yeah, I guess I didn't really think this through. :embarassed:
My console is just a one player so it's not very big. I've seen the larger two-player consoles with the flip-up tops that cut the plug off of a power strip and connect it to the IEC. There's no way I can fit that inside mine.
Do you have a suggestion on how compactly take the IEC to the Pi?
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I would forget the USB power all together and power it all from a mains socket outlet inside you panel fed via a IEC socket so you can still remove the power cord.
Yeah, I guess I didn't really think this through. :embarassed:
My console is just a one player so it's not very big. I've seen the larger two-player consoles with the flip-up tops that cut the plug off of a power strip and connect it to the IEC. There's no way I can fit that inside mine.
Do you have a suggestion on how compactly take the IEC to the Pi?
Hmm maybe you could fit a small powered USB hub inside instead?
First rule of arcade building:
Plan it out first :D