DiddyBord Red Power cutting issue

ojd233's picture
Submitted by ojd233 on Thu, 11/17/2016 - 19:44

Forums:

I have a DiddyBorgRed and it has a tendency of cutting power and restarting (Includes the Raspberry Pi). I will have control for a random time, after I plug it in, before it will cut out. Sometimes I will do a sudden movement on the controller/joystick and it will cut out. I don't know if it is my wiring, something in the script (diddyRedJoy.py) or if there is a short circuit somewhere on the board. I was wondering if anyone could help me solve this issue.

piborg's picture

piborg

Fri, 11/18/2016 - 11:33

There are a few simple possibilities which may help:

  1. Try running with fully charged / fresh batteries.
    These problems often occur as the batteries get flat.
  2. Reducing the power to the motors will leave more for the Raspberry Pi.
    This can be done with a simple script change (see below).
  3. Newer Raspberry Pis (Pi 3 and Zero) handle low power conditions better.
    Drops in power which cause older model Pis to restart may not be a problem with these newer boards.

Most of our DiddyBorg Red Edition scripts have a line like this which sets the maximum output power:

voltageOut = 12.0 * 0.95

This means the motors are allowed to use up-to 95% of the battery power.

Reducing the 0.95 to a smaller value will slow the top speed of the robot, but also increase how much of the battery is reserved for powering the Raspberry Pi.
For example:

voltageOut = 12.0 * 0.90

will limit the motors to 90% instead and will reserve 10% for the Pi, which should be more stable.

ojd233's picture

ojd233

Fri, 11/25/2016 - 15:31

Thank You very much! I will try these and hope it works

Subscribe to Comments for "DiddyBord Red Power cutting issue"