I’m building a table-top arcade machine at the moment. I’ve got a 5V 6A (30W) AC/DC converter that produces a steady 5.03 V going directly into the Picade X Hat pins (next to the USB-C).
During boot I’m getting the rainbow screen briefly and then undervoltage / underpowered lightning symbol (⚡️). I’ve not got my controls yet so I’ve not been able to see if I am getting this issue after-boot but I would assume so.
The RPi is a Model 3 B+ and is not overclocked and the AC/DC converter is being used only for the RPi so it’s current isn’t being affected by anything else.
I’ve not tried
The power supply I am using is here. Would appreciate if anyone has any ideas as to why this might be happening.
It’s likely not a current issue, its actually undervolting for some reason.
If the power supply to the Raspberry Pi drops below 4.63V (+/-5%), the undervolt icon is displayed.
What gauge wires do you have going from the supply to the picade Hat? Thin wires will cause a voltage drop across them due to thier resistance. The bigger the voltage drop the less voltage you’ll see at the end that connects to the load. I believe the official Pi power supply uses 18 AWG wires.
Thanks that worked!
I was a little confused as best I can tell is my wires are about 28 AWG (Dupont jupmer wires). Then I realised lower AWG = thicker wire.
Before I had:
AC/DC -- Jumper wire --> Connector Block -- Jumper wire --> RPi
Now I have:
AC/DC -- 1.2mm wire --> Connector Block -- 2 x Jumper wire --> RPi
It’s a bit of an ugly hack at this time as I’ve needed to add a block on top the pins + jumper pins to give me some room to squeeze in an extra two cables per pin into the power input. It does however prove it fixes the problem so I’ll be ordering myself a screw terminal for a cleaner solution.
That does confuse some people, the lower the gauge number the thicker the wire.
Now you know what you need, thicker wires.