The other day I bought an Adafruit Powerboost 1000 basic in an attempt to more adequately power my Raspberry Pi 4 2gig.
My goal was to be able to power it with a usb to usbc cable running from a usb 2.0 port on a laptop, through the powerboost, and into the usbc port on the pi.
My initial boot was promising. I was able to spend around 30 minutes with almost no slowdown, the results were much better than when I had powered it from the cable alone. However, when I came back after shutting the Pi down, it wouldn't boot. The OS would begin to load and then it would crash, resulting in a boot loop. I got a second usb cable and stuck some gpio connectors on the end attempting to power the pi thru the pins as well as the usbc port, but it still wouldn't boot. I tried swapping the cables' places, sticking the powerboost to the cable that ran to the gpio pins. No luck. Finally, I tried the combination of the official usbc power supply as well as the powerboost going to the gpio pins, and that was what worked.
Then something really weird happened. I ran a test, attempting to power it off of ONLY the usb to gpio connector cable with NO powerboost... and that powered it, albeit extremely badly.
I would really prefer not having to lug the official usbc cable around with me, as the focus of my project is portability. I am baffled as to why a lesser power source will allow the pi to boot while the powerboost used on the exact same cable will not. Any advice is welcomed!
Pi Won't Boot with Powerboost
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- dastels
- Posts: 15608
- Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:22 pm
Re: Pi Won't Boot with Powerboost
First of all, don't power it with two supplies at once. That's not going to end well.
I'm confused when you say
The failure to boot might have been due to a run down battery not being able to handle the initial surge of booting.
The Pi is a rather complicated bit of hardware and does need a bit of care with powering it. The Pi 4 is more power hungry than previous models. That's the reason for a new, higher power, supply.
The only way what you're saying makes sense to me is if you have a PowerBoost 1000C and not a 1000 Basic. If so, than there is no connection between the MicroUSB input and the 5v output on the USB-A connector. The output voltage is generated from the battery. The MicroUSB powers the battery charger.
Dave
I'm confused when you say
. The PowerBoost basic just converts a battery voltage to 5v on a USB connector.cable running from a usb 2.0 port on a laptop, through the powerboost, and into the usbc port on the pi
The failure to boot might have been due to a run down battery not being able to handle the initial surge of booting.
The Pi is a rather complicated bit of hardware and does need a bit of care with powering it. The Pi 4 is more power hungry than previous models. That's the reason for a new, higher power, supply.
The only way what you're saying makes sense to me is if you have a PowerBoost 1000C and not a 1000 Basic. If so, than there is no connection between the MicroUSB input and the 5v output on the USB-A connector. The output voltage is generated from the battery. The MicroUSB powers the battery charger.
Dave
- Titan001
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Jul 26, 2021 4:14 pm
Re: Pi Won't Boot with Powerboost
Hi Dave,
I know the powerboost is normally used with a battery, but what I did was simply take the chord coming off of a usb port, sliced it up, and sticked the red and black wires into a terminal block to use as the input rather than a battery. I was told that this would work as it supplies the voltage as described in the instructions for the powerboost.
Was I mistaken in doing that?
Isaac
I know the powerboost is normally used with a battery, but what I did was simply take the chord coming off of a usb port, sliced it up, and sticked the red and black wires into a terminal block to use as the input rather than a battery. I was told that this would work as it supplies the voltage as described in the instructions for the powerboost.
Was I mistaken in doing that?
Isaac
- dastels
- Posts: 15608
- Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:22 pm
Re: Pi Won't Boot with Powerboost
Huh. Yeah, that'll work (the boost convertor has a max input rated at 5.5v).
I'm still confused. What is your goal?
Dave
I'm still confused. What is your goal?
Dave
Forum rules
Talk about Adafruit Raspberry Pi® accessories! Please do not ask for Linux support, this is for Adafruit products only! For Raspberry Pi help please visit: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/
Talk about Adafruit Raspberry Pi® accessories! Please do not ask for Linux support, this is for Adafruit products only! For Raspberry Pi help please visit: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/