Hello there, we’ve been using different power adapters for our raspberry 4 to run on our bot and we’ve come across multiple pros and cons using them each.
Now we plan on buying a Raspberry pi 5 and we need advice on powering it. We’re located in Turkey and we have a VRM-PDH.
What adapters do you use (brand/type) and where do you feed the power after getting the 5V 5A output?
Grapple has a new product that may do the job for you PRE-ORDER: Grapple Robotics MitoCANdria
Several teams that use orange pi use this Pololu - 5V, 5.5A Step-Down Voltage Regulator D36V50F5
I’d also recommend the Pololu regulator.
It’s recommended to power the Pi from its usb-c power input. I’d take a usb-c cable and strip it down to the 4 wires. Ignore the green/white wires since they are signal and are not needed for power input. Connect the 2 power wires (red/black) to the 5V power output on your regulator.
Have yet to get These but it’s our short term plan for our orange Pi’s (would work for raspberry pis as well), given the rules change this year for ACTIVE POE, and the development that is likely to happen in that area over the next few years, we want to be flexible for when those solutions come out.
The zinc-v is cheap and capable in the meantime.
We used to use the Pololu part, but the Redux one is better in every way.
I would be careful. Redux’s products page that they only do 5A for no more than 3 minutes. The Zinc-V is mainly focused for Orange Pi.
It’s a little questionable but last minute I used two vrms with the 5v channels in parallel for a pi 4 off a 12v psu and that worked great
5A is the max load of a raspberry pi, when it’s got USB perferials it needs to power, monitors it needs its GPU spooled up and operating, GPIO all firing, ect…
In a FRC coprocessor role it won’t be that much. I have confidence the redux zinc-v will handle our use-case just fine.
When I get a rpi5 spooled up with photo vision I’ll take some current measurements this year
Our team uses the components and assembly described in this post from last season’s OA thread.
I’ve actually been using a raspberry pi 5 running an apriltag detector on a webcam for a non-FRC application using a zinc-v for a while. After an initial spike of ~3.1A it settled pretty nicely into a 1.2-1.4A continuous current load, and the tag detector I was running was a bit more intensive then the typical ones you see in FRC.
That’s actually good to know. Thank you for correcting me!
Has anyone decided to try using the ThriftyBot (Grapple) MitoCandria?
I’ve been using the Pololu 4091 step down regulator with no issues, but always on the lookout for the new best thing…