RPi 3 B+ untervoltage problem.

Help and Support Help
#1

Hi,

My Volumio system is build on RPi and HiFiberry Amp+ (geniue). Everything was working perfectly for last two years.

I just upgraded my RPi 3 B to new RPi 3 B+ v1.3. To have fresh system I flashed recent Volumio image -> volumio-2.457-2018-09-17-pi.img.
Unfortunately on boot and I received Undervoltage detected error. And Volumio is now not working of course.

The RPi is powered from HiFiberry and on pins 2-6 on GPIO I have nice stable 5.02 V - tested with multimeter and oscilloscope.
I’v checked the problem with high quality AC Plug power supply and with Lab desktop PSU. Same results.
I’m electronics engineer so I’m quite sure that problem is not on power supply hardware side.

Then I flash latest Raspbian -> 2018-06-27-raspbian-stretch-lite - zero problems - zero undervoltage warnings.
Then i flash latest LibreELEC - upgraded to 8.9 (Leia beta) - works perfectly even with Full HD 3D Avatar (30GB) or HD Netflix - zero undervoltage warnings.

Tested also with -> volumio-2.382-2018-03-16-pi.img and version 2.389 (via PINN) - this same error.

Any ideas what to do ?

best regards
Slawek

#2

If you are confidant of your power supply, then why is the RPi reporting an undervoltage? The latest Pi is certainly more of a power hog than previous generations. Have you tried the simple test of supplying the Pi directly with it’s own good quality power source?

#3

Weird, but double check or swap the cable between the PSU and the Pi. Using a too thin cable or somerhing with a to high resistance could cause this problem.

I even had it when a used a usb cable with inline on/off switch.

Give it a try if not tried already.

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#4

Hi Guys,

I really appreciate your advice, but could you please read carefully my post?

I’v tested the this with 3 different power sources including Lab PSU - with thick cables - 2,5 mm2.

As I verified the HiFiBerry Amp+ has quite good StepDown Buck converter to provide stable 5V for RPi. And is 5.02V all the time.

But I’v checked both way of sourcing RPi - via HiFiBerry Amp+ (GPIO way) and powering RPi directly form good quality AC->microUSB

If there is problem (as you suggest) with my power supply why there is no undervoltage error on Raspbian or LibreELEC only with Volumio2 ?!?!?

regards

Slawek
IMAG0126.jpg

#5

On forum https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=207942#p1339302 there is information that Jessie is not supported on RPi 3 B+. Should be at least Streach 4.14 >=2018-04-18.

Latest Volumio 2 (2.457) report:

volumio@volumio:~$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)"
NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="8"
VERSION="8 (jessie)"
ID=raspbian
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianForums"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianBugs"
VOLUMIO_BUILD_VERSION="c00a19098320053824010d132d6bfb39774a7d2f"
VOLUMIO_FE_VERSION="e2f152c30d370c9c7c86508a02c0323bef5c243b"
VOLUMIO_BE_VERSION="909cc76a7609428f005f8e2878227062cb5328a6"
VOLUMIO_ARCH="arm"
VOLUMIO_VARIANT="volumio"
VOLUMIO_TEST="FALSE"
VOLUMIO_BUILD_DATE="Mon Sep 17 00:18:22 CEST 2018"

VOLUMIO_VERSION="2.457"
VOLUMIO_HARDWARE="pi"
VOLUMIO_HASH="cdde21c6e3d40ce352c051f661950d1b"

Maybe this is source of my problem? Is anybody using RPi 3 B+ with latest Volumio 2?

#6

Hi, slawec

I regularly use Volumio with PI3 B+.

My experience so far has been quite good with it: did not have any stability issues.
However:

  • I also have the undervoltage warnings, quite a lot of them (did not have any report with previous PI’s, same software)
  • We had an higher number of customers returning their PI 3B+ because of hardware faults than previous models.

I have 2 hypothesis:

  • PI3B+ consumes way more power than its predecessor, and since Volumio runs in “performance” CPU governor by default it will trigger the undervoltage much easily than other distros.
  • A DAC\AMP board designed for previous generation PIs might not take into account the additioal power requirements of PI3B+.

To see if that’s the case, try to change the CPU governor to ondemand

#7

Hi michelangelo,

thanks for the suggestions - I will try and let you know the results.

have nice weekend

Slawek

#8

Final report!

After week of fighting. My problem was solved by changing HiFiBerry Amp+ to new version HiFiBerry Amp2 - compatible with RPi 3 B+.

best regards

Slawek

#9

Interesting, did hifiberry provide any explanation about what can be the cause?

#10

Didn’t asked them. There is kind of mess on http://www.hifiberry.com
On products page - is still old Amp+ no info about Amp2. But In Shop page there is no Amp+ at all only new Amp2 :open_mouth:

EDIT: I just opened the support ticket on HiFiBerry web page.

#11

I got extremely fast (and short) response from HiFiBerry

#12

Hi all, I’m very new to this world. I just received my pi3 b+ and I have the same under-voltage warning, but I have no periphericals connected. Only an USB dac.

Any idea on how to solve the problem?

Thank you.
Ps. I wouldn’t send it back in exchange of the previous one…

#13

Set up Volumio on Raspberry Pi 3 B+ and got lot of under-voltage warnings. Investigated this problem and find out that average power draw is very low - no more than 0,5A but there are high pulse currents. Solution is very simple - just put 2200uf 6.3v Low-ESR electrolytic capacitor between +5v and ground on extension connector (+5V pin2, GND pin6) - no more warnings even with standard 2A phone charger.