Need help with power issue.

[DarakuTenshi]

I've been working on a project for a friend and I guess I should have done a little more research before getting to this point. My problem is with my current setup I'm not getting enough power to my RPI3 (it has the lightning bolt in the corner of the screen). It runs just fine, but when I add player 3 and 4 with USB controllers it will begin to be a problem (or when a mouse and keyboard need to be used).

Maybe I can get some suggestions from you on how to remedy the problem. Here is the project.



As you can see on the back there is a USB power (colored red) that extends the USB power from the PI into the passthrough device. The problem is it comes out of the RPi and connects to the passthrough via USB type B then from the back of the unit USB A to USB A which plugs into the wall with your standard USB charging adaptor for cell phones. (Here is the passthrough that I'm using https://www.amazon.com/Neutrik-NAUSB-W- ... assthrough)

It's possible I'm not getting enough power from the outlet (I don't believe this is the issue), or I might be losing power through all the connections. Any suggestions on how I might be able to remedy this issue?

[wildfire]

Just to clarify, the only power for the entire setup is coming from a cell phone charger?

If so then that is certainly the cause of your problem, the Pi3B requires more current than earlier models and adding more devices to it will cause it to be more power greedy.

What are the specs of your power supply (2.5A @ 5V is reccomended for a model 3B)?

[DarakuTenshi]

That is the problem then. It's 5v 1a.
I need to see if there is a power supply that has USB A on the other end otherwise I'll have to try and figure out how to power this thing a different way and modify the case a bit more. (Which since it's all painted and primed... I'd hate to do that).

[musei]

Hey guys, I know this is an old post, but I'm having a similar issue, though I'm not running arcade games.

I'm using a Neutrik USB USB pass-through (2.0 model http://www.neutrik.com/en/multimedia/usb/nausb-w-b). So I'm looking for recommendations for the USB micro to Type A, and then a USB Type B cable to a power adapter if anyone has any recommendations.

I've been trying to buy off amazon combination of cables, but can't seem to find any reliable ones that allow me to have consistent power throughout it's usage (half the time the lightning bolt appears in the corner of the screen).

I'm have a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and using various 1ft micro usb cables to the Neutrik, and then trying to use a 6ft USB Type A to B.

With that said, do you think moving to the Neutrik USB 3.0 (http://www.neutrik.com/en/multimedia/nausb3-b) pass-through would work better for power?

Any help would be really appreciated.

[alphanumeric]

I used this, https://www.adafruit.com/product/658 with this, https://www.adafruit.com/product/610 on my bread board rig. I just made up my own cables to go to the Pi and my Pi Foundation 7 inch touch screen. There are lots of adapters for that supply on Adafruit. https://www.adafruit.com/category/267 I also made up my own custom USB cables. I only wire up Data + Data - and Ground on the male end that plugs into the Pi's USB port. Then on the other end I wire up the Data + Data - and Ground from the Pi but the +5V comes from my power supply. That bypasses the 1.2 A total current limit you get when powering USB devices right from the Pi. I also wired in 500 ma poly fuses so nothing bad happens if I get a short.

[musei]

First I appreciate the quick reply, thank you for that.

But Oye, I really don't feel comfortable making my own cables an doing the wiring inside there for that.

Is there no good recommendation for a short USB micro cable and a longer regular USB cable with the USB Neutrik Pass-Through?



Edit: Additional question here that maybe could help. When running the software that's usually when the lightning bolt appears. I'm not a Raspberry Pi 3 expert, but would turning off the FTP server and disabling the Wifi help with drawing more power?

I mentioned before the lightning bolt isn't always up there, maybe about half the time, but since I no longer require the FTP server to be running in the background to upload files, or the network to connect to it since it's a standalone setup, would this help dramatically decrease the power it requires? Or do those not draw enough power to bother with disabling?


With that said, if it would help, is that something easy to do (disable the Wifi)?

[HawaiianPi]

Hey guys, I know this is an old post, but I'm having a similar issue, though I'm not running arcade games.

I'm using a Neutrik USB USB pass-through (2.0 model http://www.neutrik.com/en/multimedia/usb/nausb-w-b). So I'm looking for recommendations for the USB micro to Type A, and then a USB Type B cable to a power adapter if anyone has any recommendations.

I've been trying to buy off amazon combination of cables, but can't seem to find any reliable ones that allow me to have consistent power throughout it's usage (half the time the lightning bolt appears in the corner of the screen).

I'm have a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and using various 1ft micro usb cables to the Neutrik, and then trying to use a 6ft USB Type A to B.

With that said, do you think moving to the Neutrik USB 3.0 (http://www.neutrik.com/en/multimedia/nausb3-b) pass-through would work better for power?

Any help would be really appreciated.

The USB version of the pass-through won't make a difference. Either one will cause some resistive losses.

You didn't say what you are using for your power supply, which is important because it's likely the source of your troubles. Note that some phone chargers do not deliver their rated voltage, because charging batteries does not require precise voltage control. I have tested phone chargers rated for 5V/2.4A that dipped well below 5V at only 1A load.

Also, the USB cables in between need to have at least 24 AWG power wires, and preferably larger (lower wire gauge = fatter wires, so 20 AWG is better than 24 AWG).

Another option would be to move the PSU inside the case/cabinet and have the mains power connect to the outside. That would eliminate extra USB cables and connector losses. Barring that, a pass-through with a micro-USB cable on the back would eliminate 1 connector loss, but you would likely have to make something like that.

Bottom line, you need to test your PSU to see if it can maintain 5V under load, then you need to eliminate interconnection losses by reducing the number of plugs and jacks, and finally you need to use cables with nice fat wires.

Using the official RPF Pi3 PSU and running the power cord through the back of the cabinet with a grommet would eliminate all issues, but your power cord would not be detachable. The official RPF PSU is rated at 5.1V/2.5A with an attached 18 AWG micro-USB power cord.

[musei]

OK that was a bit more helpful, thank you @HawaiianPi. So if I look for 20 or 24 AWG USB cables 1ft for inside the case and then a 3ft to 6ft 20 or 24 AWG USB cable for the other side, that should hopefully eliminate some of the degradation I'm experiencing.


And I was using a brick from my Lenovo Yoga laptop USB Brick with states it can do Output: 5V-2.5A/9V-2A/12V-1.5A. If there is another USB Outlet that anyone recommends I'm all game. But yeah I'd like to keep this detachable with the Neutrik as it's a very clean look.

With that said, not sure if you saw my other edit from the previous post. Would disabling the Wifi, BlueTooth also help with keeping power requirements down? I'd still get the better cables, but hoping that would also help with keep the power requirements down.



Edit:

Here are a couple of the 1ft Micro 20AWG cables I was able to find. Still looking for a 6ft 20AWG USB with a Type B head

http://a.co/4tbptdR

http://a.co/8Whweoz

[musei]

Hey, I have another question as I saw some other topics pop up. Can the Raspberry Pi 3 be Powered over Ethernet with the onboard port? Cause that would be so much better if I could do that and use the RJ45 Neutrik Adapter instead of the USB one.

Is there anything special I need to do, or just plug it into a PoE network switch port or a power injector? Or do I need to buy some other additional item for this to work?

Also note, I don't care about losing the port for network access.

[drgeoff]

Can the Raspberry Pi 3 be Powered over Ethernet with the onboard port?

The onboard ethernet port does not support PoE.

[musei]

Oh lol. OK, not sure what the other thread then is talking about. May have to join that one to see what they are doing.