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Powering a Prop Board — Parallax Forums

Powering a Prop Board

Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
in Propeller 1
Hello!
An individual I am working with wants to see evidence of my work. Call it a paperwork blizzard that person is trying to clean up after. I know that the Prop Activity Board and the Prop Project Board (USB) are designed to be externally powered. (The PAB expects to be externally powered all the time, but that isn't important here.) But what about the Quick Start Board? That seems to be the oddman out in this case. How can that board be configured to externally powered when in use away from the host computer?

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Comments

  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    Buck Rogers wrote: »
    Hello!
    An individual I am working with wants to see evidence of my work. Call it a paperwork blizzard that person is trying to clean up after. I know that the Prop Activity Board and the Prop Project Board (USB) are designed to be externally powered. (The PAB expects to be externally powered all the time, but that isn't important here.) But what about the Quick Start Board? That seems to be the oddman out in this case. How can that board be configured to externally powered when in use away from the host computer?

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    It is possible to power the Quick Start board externally via pins/pads 39 and 40 of J1 or J3.
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    kwinn wrote: »
    Buck Rogers wrote: »
    Hello!
    An individual I am working with wants to see evidence of my work. Call it a paperwork blizzard that person is trying to clean up after. I know that the Prop Activity Board and the Prop Project Board (USB) are designed to be externally powered. (The PAB expects to be externally powered all the time, but that isn't important here.) But what about the Quick Start Board? That seems to be the oddman out in this case. How can that board be configured to externally powered when in use away from the host computer?

    ----
    Mascot away on vacation. Please leave your message at the sound of the moose.

    It is possible to power the Quick Start board externally via pins/pads 39 and 40 of J1 or J3.

    Okay great. I'll fish one out of the pile and examine it to look for those locations. As for what the lucky board will do, I'm leaning towards the classic RGB LED driving scene.

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  • Francis BauerFrancis Bauer Posts: 364
    Buck Rogers wrote: »
    Hello!
    An individual I am working with wants to see evidence of my work. Call it a paperwork blizzard that person is trying to clean up after. I know that the Prop Activity Board and the Prop Project Board (USB) are designed to be externally powered. (The PAB expects to be externally powered all the time, but that isn't important here.) But what about the Quick Start Board? That seems to be the oddman out in this case. How can that board be configured to externally powered when in use away from the host computer?

    ----
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    You can also use an external USB Battery pack and your normal USB cable to run a Quick Start Board, but you will need to use a jumper to Ground (Vss) Pin 30 (USB_PWR_EN) on the Header connector in order for the onboard power supply circuit to turn-on.

    I just did this experiment on one of my Quick Start Rev A Boards, and it powered up and ran its stored program as normal. As far as I can tell from the schematics, this should also work on the Quick Start Rev B boards too.

    NOTE: BE SURE TO REMOVE THE JUMPER FROM PIN 30 BEFORE CONNECTING THE QUICK START BOARD TO YOUR PC TO PREVENT DAMAGE TO THE BOARD.
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    edited 2019-09-17 12:49
    Francis Bauer wrote: »
    Buck Rogers wrote: »
    Hello!
    An individual I am working with wants to see evidence of my work. Call it a paperwork blizzard that person is trying to clean up after. I know that the Prop Activity Board and the Prop Project Board (USB) are designed to be externally powered. (The PAB expects to be externally powered all the time, but that isn't important here.) But what about the Quick Start Board? That seems to be the oddman out in this case. How can that board be configured to externally powered when in use away from the host computer?

    ----
    Mascot away on vacation. Please leave your message at the sound of the moose.

    You can also use an external USB Battery pack and your normal USB cable to run a Quick Start Board, but you will need to use a jumper to Ground (Vss) Pin 30 (USB_PWR_EN) on the Header connector in order for the onboard power supply circuit to turn-on.

    I just did this experiment on one of my Quick Start Rev A Boards, and it powered up and ran its stored program as normal. As far as I can tell from the schematics, this should also work on the Quick Start Rev B boards too.

    NOTE: BE SURE TO REMOVE THE JUMPER FROM PIN 30 BEFORE CONNECTING THE QUICK START BOARD TO YOUR PC TO PREVENT DAMAGE TO THE BOARD.

    Oh certainly. I believe I temporarily ran one from a classic LiPo battery once. It fired of a big storm on this list because of how it was wired. With a board from a different vendor, even though connecting the battery would deselect the USB power line, I would disconnect it, when reconnecting it to USB for reprogramming it.
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  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    Okay I found out via a search step, regarding what to do, and even not do, for powering a Quick Start. Its from 2016. I connected to VDD and VSS a regular LiPo battery. It worked. I then connected a pair of N cells. It worked.

    But I do not know if it would continue to work, because I didn't then mark the board with a Sharpie tag. Based on that business I am not going to use a Quick Start. Given the intended target, that it is the output function, a QS would be a bad fit. It'll probably the PAB who has an onboard regulator.

    I have a few DIP profile Prop devices, I had hoped to have figured out the ultimate example for it, but, ah, time wasn't on my side then.

    I also thought of using the regular Prop Project board, but using it seemed like overwork for a simple one.
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  • GenetixGenetix Posts: 1,754
    Francis Bauer,

    Since you mentioned a jumper a jumper on the Rev. A QuickStart, that reminded me of the "magic resistor fix" that you sometimes need to do.
    http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/comment/1094355#Comment_1094355
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    So if I understand things I need to either assign that jumper, or a resistor of the appropriate value to make things work.
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,934
    From the Quickstart product PDF:
    Pin 30 is /USB_PWR_EN (Labeled /UPE) and has a description of "Allow Power Sourcing from the USB Port"

    The pin explanation is:
    /USB_PWR_EN — USB power enable pin, inverted. Pulled to USB 5 V supply. Internally pulled
    low after successful USB power negotiation. Drive low to force the USB power input to drive the
    QuickStart power supply. Drive high with 6 VDC to disable power sourcing from the USB
    connector. Rev B and later boards also internally pull low /USB_PWR_EN low upon detecting a
    USB charger. Rev A boards must have /USB_PWR_EN externally driven low to power from a USB
    charger.

  • PFloyd36069PFloyd36069 Posts: 135
    edited 2019-09-18 11:21
    Isnt there a way to flash the FTDI chip to allow power from a USB battery pack? Seems like I've run mine this way before. That way there isnt anything to forget to switch back. 🤔
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    PFloyd36069 wrote: »
    Isnt there a way to flash the FTDI chip to allow power from a USB battery pack? Seems like I've run mine this way before. That way there isnt anything to forget to switch back. 🤔

    Actually no. The FTDI Chip is not involved in this.



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  • PFloyd36069PFloyd36069 Posts: 135
    tonyp12 wrote: »
    First Download http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Utilities/FT_Prog_v2.8.2.0.zip
    Click: Devices/Scan and Parse and after you made you changes: Devices/Program

    By default the USB-host max allowed current is set to 90 mAmp, change it to 500 mAmp.
    FTDI1.jpg?psid=1


    When you power your board trough a USB Charger it will of course not enumerate and the ftdi chip will never set PWREN# low and you will get no juice.
    Change C3 to be BitBang RDn and it will stay low and you get power with both USB host and USB charger.

    Some special chargers have minimum current or it will shut off, so test different onces.
    Using Bitbang WRn will always stay high for then you never want to use USB-host power, useful if external 1amp power is used and usbport is only used for rx/tx debug etc.
    FTDI2.jpg?psid=1


    You can also do the above functions in jumper settings on the Quickstart board or on your own add-on board.
    Connect a 0-1k resistor between 6th pin from the right to gnd for always power on or 0ohm jumper to Vin for always off.
    usbenable.jpg?psid=1

  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    And we were discussing powering the board from the connections to the right of it. The FTDI device is not involved here because the connections involved were originally used by the chip on the board during normal use. The FTDI device is only used during programming and then debugging of that program.

    if you feel you're not comfortable powering the board that way, that's okay. But not what I originally had in mind.
  • GenetixGenetix Posts: 1,754
    Buck,

    Do you have Rev. A or B QuickStart boards?
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    Genetix wrote: »
    Buck,

    Do you have Rev. A or B QuickStart boards?

    Excellent question. These are all Rev. A, boards. Three are wearing the Retail packaging, and one in a generic antistatic bag.

    What prompted it?
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