Sidewinder Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Hi Pi users, Been running since mid Dec last year, then got ICC going mid Jan this year (Thanks Manie!). Installed VNC on old Android phone last night and have session running there, so the helper can "see" if she can use more power or not, seeing overloading is easy to achieve!!. So during the day, I use my phone to also remotely VNC into the Pi, just to ensure all is OK, e.g. geyser switching on at 12 etc. So around 5 I do the same, all OK, but notice that the graphs still update, but switching between menus etc does not work anymore. Got home, VNC from Laptop, same issue. So went and did a visual inspection of inverter/battery room. Pi power light is on, and Wifi LED flashing. All seems OK. Picked the Pi up, which is in a factory case, and it is very warm. Remove power and open case. most components e.g. CPU, HDMI & SD card are very warm to touch. Too warm for me. Switch on again after few minutes. VNC & SSH connect, but not functioning. Mmm, looks like a bad wifi connection. Turn Pi through 90 deg, and fix against wall with press-stic. Now everything connects and VNC is also normal gain. Will need to keep an eye on this, maybe a (small usb) fan to keep things cool? Any ideas? Also would like to run two independant VNC sessions. Is this possible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Pleasure. There is heatsink for pi. I am staying in extreme hot place and the pi by me is about 46 degrees wich is normal for the pi. Just google the except able temp and compare itSent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidewinder Posted January 25, 2017 Author Share Posted January 25, 2017 Thanks Manie, Just more feedback. Pi worked all day, but at about 16:30 it died again - no response. So did a visual inspection when I got home, and Pi was very hot. Went looking for a small CPU fan of an old motherboard and got that going. After repowering Pi, Led flashed a few times, and then died completely. As I had school function to attend to, by the time I got home again at 20:00, battery SOC was at 75% on BMV, @ 49V. So quickly adjusted setting 13 to 50V , and Axpert switched immediately to Grid. So off to Pifactory tomorrow to replace Pi. Obviously, very disappointed in the quality of Pi, at it lasted only 2 months and a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Thanks Manie, Just more feedback. Pi worked all day, but at about 16:30 it died again - no response. So did a visual inspection when I got home, and Pi was very hot. Went looking for a small CPU fan of an old motherboard and got that going. After repowering Pi, Led flashed a few times, and then died completely. As I had school function to attend to, by the time I got home again at 20:00, battery SOC was at 75% on BMV, @ 49V. So quickly adjusted setting 13 to 50V , and Axpert switched immediately to Grid. So off to Pifactory tomorrow to replace Pi. Obviously, very disappointed in the quality of Pi, at it lasted only 2 months and a bit. Pleasure. I realy think there is a issue with your. I have 4 of them . 2 muti players and 1 controlling my automated lights and is running for more then 2 years. (P2) the others is running just over a year.Here by me the ambient temp is some days over 40Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
___ Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Are you sure it's the Pi and not the sdcard? When the LED flashes a few times and then nothing, it is sometimes an indication of a bad sdcard. I presently have two Pi2 boards (one is mine, one is from work) and a Pi3. The Pi2 boards are just a tad better quality than the Pi3. The little sdcard slot is of the click-in, click-out type whereas on the pi3 it just slides in. Also, the micro-USB connector feels rough and plugging it in is definitely less smooth than with the pi2. Some cost-cutting was definitely done. Still a neat little board, but not as well rounded as the previous ones. Just my personal opinion of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 The number of times the green light flashes, actually tells you what is wrong with the unit. 3 flashes: start.elf not found 4 flashes: start.elf not launched 7 flashes: kernel.img not found 8 flashes: SDRAM not recognised. You need newer bootcode.bin/start.elf firmware. I am not to sure how up to date the list with the number of flashes are. I would suggest you count the number of green flashes and google it. ___ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidewinder Posted January 26, 2017 Author Share Posted January 26, 2017 Red LED came on solid (Power), and green LED flashes once and then all died. CPU was very hot. Tried again to power up this morning, nothing from the LED's, so "Die Pi is in sy Maai!" Good thing there's a special on for Pi 3B @ Pishop @ R629 VAT incl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 I am not so sure. They are tough little machines. It usually is one of 2 things. Power supply or SD card. Since yours have been working for 2 months, you can probably rule out power supply. Let them test it before you buy a new one. You might be surprised, they insert one of their SD cards and it boots up, haha. While you are at the PI shop, get a heat sink and a PI fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidewinder Posted January 26, 2017 Author Share Posted January 26, 2017 Thanks for the tip about the fan. I need to make a plan with better ventilation for my inverter room. Perhaps an small to medium extractor fan. The room does heat up a little bit in late afternoon, as the sun shines directly onto the wall. I'm just powering the Pi with cable from Laptop to test, maybe the 500 mA is not even enough to boot Pi, hence my thinking it is dead. Will test at home again this afternoon on proper PSU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 No, 500 mA is definitely not enough to power the PI. The PI3 requires a minimum 2.5A charger. How did it run for the last 2 months? If you don't have a proper PI3 power supply, get one. Here is a 3A power supply for R128. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
___ Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 10 hours ago, Don said: The number of times the green light flashes, actually tells you what is wrong with the unit. I did not know this! I suppose it is a bit like the old LiLo boot process (man... I'm getting old in terms of IT, who even knows about Lilo these days?). It would print a letter as it progresses through the boot process, so you had a vague idea where it was depending on how much of the word got printed. 31 minutes ago, Don said: No, 500 mA is definitely not enough to power the PI. The PI3 requires a minimum 2.5A charger. No. The Pi needs around 700mA to power everything on board. 500mA is a tad on the low side. It will run fine from a 1A psu, but 2A+ is usually advised if you have lots of USB peripherals, in which case total consumption can go up to 1.3A. Samsung phone chargers usually have enough oomph to run a Pi. In fact, I found it to be one of the smoothest power sources, though it is of course limited to about 1 ampere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 Here are the recommended power supply recommendations: PI Recommended 5 Volts DC Power Supply Amps Raspberry Pi Model A Raspberry Pi Model B+ Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Raspberry Pi 3 Model B 700mA 1.8A 1.8A 2.5A Yes, I am sure they can run with lower amp rating power supplies, depending on how many peripherals are connected to the Pi, but that can sometimes result in strange problems such as rebooting or not booting up every time. If system stability and performance are needed, then I would definitely stick with the basic requirements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
___ Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 Recommended, aka "don't call me unless you ruled this out by oversizing the supply first"... :-) It could very well be the PSU. I've had cases where it works fine until I plug in a keyboard, when the WiFi strangely starts to misbehave (not enough power for both). On its own with nothing plugged in, you can get away with a smaller supply. If it doesn't boot, it's not the PSU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidewinder Posted January 26, 2017 Author Share Posted January 26, 2017 The PSU I used is a 2A unit. Only using the onboard Wifi and the two USB cables plugged. I have ordered a 2.5A unit with the new Pi 3, with heatsink & fan. Although i quite like the USB fan they sell at Clicks! Maybe mount that below the Pi and let is blow up and over the whole Pi. Not like the Expert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverNodashi Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 I would suspect a fault on your Pi. Is there anything strange in the logs? (i.e. /var/log/*) that could help? A warm CPU could be related to other warm components on the board, which in turn could be related to too low voltage on the input. IF you could, try and measure the voltage on the "test pads", on the bottom of the Pi. See here for more info: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=84874 I suspect you're experiencing a volt drop, probably due to a bad (or too thin) USB cable and it's causing the heating problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Cheap solution? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidewinder Posted January 27, 2017 Author Share Posted January 27, 2017 TTT, that fan is ideal, but personally, I don't like the open blade! Got new Pi this afternoon, stuck on the two heat sinks, inserted the old SD card, and it's a no go. It seems the Pi's heat also destroyed the SD Card. Busy downloading the image and will have to start from scratch! Grr.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 I am ussing the samsung EVO. Maybe there is nothing wrong with your Pi. If the cd card is damaged you will not get Anything Done lights except the red lights. The Samsug EVO red is.working grade for meSent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidewinder Posted January 28, 2017 Author Share Posted January 28, 2017 So the original SD card was a Sandisk Ultra 16 Gb. I went the NOOBS install route and everything went well for 2 months. So I did it again on new 64 Gb card. Pi not booting. So I thought, let me try the Image route. So Etcher say Image too big for (new) 16G Card.??. Busy flashing the image on 64 Gb Sandisk Ultra. Manie, btw, i tested the old Pi again last night, at least the red light comes on, but CPU burns my finger within 5 seconds. Unfortunately, I only ordered 1 set of Pi heatsinks for the new Pi. Will modify one of my old Computer CPU heatsinks (too big to fit on Pi) later, and see if old Pi will boot. I thing the main issue was the Pi temperature, which lead the the SD card failing. A clear indication is the Format F: does not yield any results. First want to get back "on air", as I noticed last night the Axpert switching line quite a few times. Also survived 2 x power outages - one Tuesday +-18:00 - 20:00 and Thursday +- the same. Difficult to tell these days with the new system. Only noticed something was wrong as I stepped out the house to the garage, and could hear the neighbour's Genny running. My Genny's there only for real emergency!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidewinder Posted January 28, 2017 Author Share Posted January 28, 2017 Yipee!! Image flash works and Pi booted up 100%. Just need to get the Wifi MAC addy and reprogram static IP allocation on router. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 Hi Sidewider, glad to see you are up and running again. Out of curiosity I would like to see what happens when you plug in the new SD card and power supply into the old PI. If the old PI boots up and you still suspect high CPU temperatures, open the terminal and run the following command: vcgencmd measure_temp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidewinder Posted January 28, 2017 Author Share Posted January 28, 2017 Thanks Don, will do, Still not 100% out of the woods. Connected the Pi to Expert this morning, all OK, except can't VNC into it. I see Manie uses vncserver, I use tightvncserver, so busy installing...will try and figure out later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 The easiest way is to use VNC. It is already comes installed as standard on the PI. Click on the"Red Raspberry/Start Button". Then "Preferences", "Raspberry Pi Configuration", "Interfaces" and ensure that VNC is "Enabled". Install VNC viewer on you PC or Laptop. Open VNC on your PC, select "File" and then "New Connection". VNC Server: add your Pi IP address here. Name: add a name here, MyPi or whatever you want to name the connection and click "Ok". Double click on the new connection you just created. Username: pi and Password: raspberry (Unless you have changed it) Put a tick mark in remember my password and connect. It works like a charm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidewinder Posted January 28, 2017 Author Share Posted January 28, 2017 Thanks Don, I've checked all the setting, all OK. For the life of me, i cannot get VNC to work. It worked with the default password, but then i changed both pi and root passwd, and now I cannot do anything remotely, SSH/Telnet/VNC just does not work. GRRRRRRRR. I'm stumped. Did sudo passwd pi from console, accepts it, but no luck from remote. Looks like a 3rd time flashing and starting from scratch. VNC answers with authentication etc, then asks for user/passwd. I enter pi and my new password...FAIL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidewinder Posted January 28, 2017 Author Share Posted January 28, 2017 Yeehaaa! Success at last. 16h45 ICC is running 100%. VNC etc also working. pi@ICC-Solar:~ $ vcgencmd measure_temp temp=44.0'C Running ICC Ver 1.1.2 I see that it is now reporting Inverter Temp. Thanks Don & Manie. Chris Hobson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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