Power USB Port

[LinusvanPelt]

I'm having a brain fart and for the life of me cannot think what to call the the power port on the Pi. Anyway, I have just got my Pi delivered and have noticed that when I move it, the actual board as I have no case yet, the power cuts out and it reboots. I have tried two USB cables and blowing in the port to remove any dust or dirt that may be causing a bad connection. I take it this is not normal, does anyone have any experience of this or will I have to send it back?

Thanks for any help offered, I did try searching the board before posting but the search always ignores the word 'power' so I found nothing....

[penguintutor]

Sounds like a bad solder joint - better to return under warranty than try to repair yourself.

[redhawk]

It's called a Micro USB port but power port would probably do since it's not really a USB port.
It sounds like a bad solder joint or broken track my Micro USB cable has some sideways moment but the PI certainly doesn't reboot as a result.

Richard S.

[Wheel_nut]

The MicroUSB Power Socket is Surface Moumted so unless you have excellent soldering skills, it would be best left to an expert.

If yours is a Rev 2 Board (or a late Rev 1 Board), then it is possible and even preferable to power it from one of the USB Sockets by connecting it to a POWERED USB Hub with all peripherals like the Keyboard and Mouse connected to the Hub. I use a 7 Port USB Hub like this one:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-PORT-MAINS- ... ceRpt=true

although I power the Hub from a 2.1A Apple iPad Power Supply. This keeps the volt drop in the cabling to a minimum. Most MicroUSB cables I have bought are made from very thin guage wire and the volt drop can be as high as a Volt, causing problems with the USB Keyboard and mouse behaving erratically.

[LinusvanPelt]

Thanks for the replies, appreciated. This problem hasn't occurred anywhere near as much since I posted which is typical! However, I now have another problem, the Pi is stuck on the red light with nothing displaying on the monitor. This looks bad.

[redhawk]

So no green flashing light and what about the LAN port LEDs are they dead too??

Richard S.

[LinusvanPelt]

Aye, all dead apart from that single unblinking red. Had a look at troubleshooting and am leaving it for a while in case the polyfuse thing resets itself. I suspect that using it without a case, no matter how careful I am runs the risk of shorting something.