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Raspberry Pi Forum RG1 1.8v regulator
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Related

RG1 1.8v regulator

Former Member
Former Member over 13 years ago

Ok, so in a different thread I threatened to remove RG1 and do some current measurements on it's output after seeing those thermal images that show it's not generating any heat...

 

Well, I did it tonight. Some photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/selsinork/RPi18v

 

The jumper pins in the output let me either just put a jumper on and verify the Pi boots ok, or wire a multimeter in series to get some current readings.

 

The results were interesting to say the least. I had to go back and check I was reading the multimeter correctly, that it wasn't broken etc.

 

On initial power up I see a negative current for a second or so which then reverses to about 0.5mA (yes half a milliamp, that's not a typo) for a few seconds while we get the first sd-card accesses. Once we're booted and sitting at the login prompt the current reading fluctuates from around 0.001mA to maybe 0.04mA. 

 

I'm using the 40mA range on a decent Fluke multimeter, so I've no reason to doubt the results. There's obviously going to be some inaccuracy down at that level due to length of meter leads etc, but the result is fairly clear.  You'll understand why I was checking the meter was working and I was reading it correctly though image

 

 

So from there onto the next test, lets try completely disconnecting RG1 and see if the Pi boots while using the LAN9512 1.8v 'output'.  Yes it does! 

 

I think that's reasonably good indication that jamodio got it spot on, the lan9512 shouldn't be connected to the 1.8v plane and it's heat problems are going to be largely due to supplying current on it's 1.8v filter pin that it was never designed to do.

 

So anyone willing to pull RG1 off a Pi and verify my results ?

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  • rew
    rew over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

    My test shows the raspberry is pretty tolerant of "low voltage" at the input. The only peripherals that I had connected during my test was the ethernet. I'm not pretending you should run your raspberry at 3.7V. I'm not working on qualifying the 'pi for that. It's just that when people say that the raspberry doesn't work if your power supply delivers only 4.5V I get worked up. It simply isn't true. The raspberry pi itself works just fine downto 3.7V. All sorts of peripherals, even ones that should conform to the USB spec and therefore work downto 4.2V, drop out way earlier.

     

    I left my 'pi running at 3.7V and it's still running with an uptime of over 16 hours now.

     

    If you blame the wrong component when troubleshooting, the acutal cause of the problem won't be fixed.

     

    So, the raspberry pi works down to 3.7V on it's 5V line. This means you have to provide 3.9V at the USB connector for the raspberry to function. Given that lots of peripherals need more than that (and are also behind the polyfuse) the requirements for the powersupply and cable increase.

     

    I have tested a 500mA USB powersupply from china. It doesn't achieve its spec. But nobody claimed 500mA USB powersupplies would work.

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