Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Pi1 voltage

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Pi1 voltage

    For years I have been running dump1090 and fr24feeder off a RPi1B with a Chinese DVB-T tuner (see picture below), and it has been working flawlessly.

    S-TT-1025_1.jpg
    6 months ago, my feeder stopped sending data to FR24, and I have been working on/off the project for a few months now trying to figure out the issue.

    I have tried reinstalling, changing the Pi boards to another I had lying around, tried another SDR tuner which unfortunately was an incompatible model, but also tried other power supplies. All with same result.

    What strikes me on the current Pi setup, is frequent crashes with dump1090 with error messages such as "usb_open error -4" or "usb_open error -6"
    But also that the LED on the SDR is flickering a lot, and that the Pi sometimes no longer sees the SDR on the USB ports especially on polling the SDR.

    This weekend I aimed for trying the SDR on a regular laptop in a Windows environment, and it worked flawlessly, I could finally see aircrafts in the sky.

    So can I conclude that the USB ports on my Pi1 is no longer capable of giving enough voltage for the SDR?
    As said previously I have also tried other power supplies, it was previously running with official Pi PSU, but tried some iPad, Smartphone chargers too with 2Amps just to be sure.
    I unfortunately do not have a powered USB hub lying around.

    Just out of curiosity, if I can blame my Pi board's USB voltage, did Pi Foundation change the kernel since it all of a sudden stopped working on any of my Pi1 boards?
    And since I likely need to change the board, is there any advice which board is the best for FR24, since I see people posting problems with the Zero W, and other posting issues with the Pi4 model.

  • #2
    The earlier pi models had issues with usb power, there were various work arounds if I recall correctly the main problem was the poly switch ‘fuses’ in the 5v line, these were under specified in the first place and tend to increase in resistance with age, the normal cure was to just replace them with a wire link, alternatively using a powered hub is good, but try to find one that won’t ‘back power’ the Pi.
    FR24 F-EGLF1, Blitzortung station 878, OGN Aldersht2, PilotAware PWAldersht, PlanePlotter M7.

    Comment


    • #3
      Thank F-EGLF1, I was just surprised it all of sudden stopped working.

      But I got some solution en route, found a cheap bargain for universal power supply, which can make my USB hubs I had lying around to powered USB hubs. This will most likely resort the situation or at least shed light if I also need to replace the Pi.

      Comment


      • #4
        Just to wrap up my own post. It was voltage issue.
        Getting more voltage to USB by using a powered USB solved the problem. Another win for the FAQ :-)

        Comment

        Working...
        X