Raspberry Vs Orange Pi

[rsegoly]

I work a lot with Raspberry including Zero

Just bought several Orange Pi One

The issue of power supply is annoying

Same power adapter which will drive Raspberry smoothly fails to do the same for Orange

Adding KB or Mouse also effects the stability, even adding one more computer to same power block had an effect on the orange

As I need my machines in various locations I am concerned I will  have issues

[tkaiser]

The issue of power supply is annoying

 

Care to elaborate since you seem to be the only one running into these issues?

 

Without hardware modifications you can not power any Orange Pi through Micro USB so how do use PSUs made for Raspberries with Oranges?

[rsegoly]

Am i the only one? I searched the Web and found similar posts

But as an example

I connected Orange Pi and switched it on, using wireless KB, all worked well. I removed the Wireless adapter and added KB & Mouse it did not start

I connected Orange Pi at the end of extension cable it did not start, moved it to the source all was OK

I want to be coutious here as the cable I use is regular USB which I cut and added connector to To Orange Pi, I ordered dedicated cables.

I will be happy to find out if it is not an issue as I have 7 Orange Pi 

[tkaiser]

I want to be coutious here as the cable I use is regular USB which I cut and added connector to To Orange Pi, I ordered dedicated cables.

 

So you made one DIY cable that does not work when using it with 7 different OPi One? The problem with most USB cables is that they're already insufficient (small cable diameters --> resistance too high --> voltage drops when consumption increases). I don't know about your soldering skills but mine are terrible and I created underpowering situations this way several times already.

 

All Oranges can be powered absolutely reliable through barrel plug or GPIO header, simply ensure that cable/PSU are good enough so input voltage doesn't drop below 4.8V (is you want to use HDMI and USB -- otherwise even 4.5V are still fine). I did some experiments with OPi PC that are valid for the One too: http://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/504-quick-review-of-orange-pi-pc/

 

At least the symptoms you describe sound like the usual 'undervoltage' problem related to USB cables.

[technik007_cz]

@rsegoly,

original power adapter I bought together with Orange Pi One has no issues. When I tried some cable to power it from usb it failed even I feed it with about 6V. Reason is probably thin cable and usb male <=> female conector resistance. So basically I can only confirm what @tkaiser said.

[Gravelrash]

i made my own cable from an old usb cable and a power connector of the correct size.

 

i can confirm that:

a. with a good quality 2a psu i get no power or stability issues

b. with a crappy 2a psu - its unpredictable

c. With a good quality 1a psu its works fine.

[Ford Prefect]

I totally agree.

A nice thing on a good power supply is an on/off switch.

Low cost connectors are not designed to be used as switches to reboot for example.

Replacing them can be very hard and time consuming even for skilled people.

Using flying leads to remove the stress from fragile or costly devices is a good idea too.

[rodolfo]

I work a lot with Raspberry including Zero

Just bought several Orange Pi One

The issue of power supply is annoying

Same power adapter which will drive Raspberry smoothly fails to do the same for Orange

 

 OPI ONEs run reliably when fed through the dedicated power plug. Extensive testing was done with

 

- 5V/2A power supplies

- 5V/1A - 5V/2A power banks with passthrough charging

- 5V/6A DC/DC step down converters

 

Most of the problems encountered were crappy cables ( only 5 out of 20 cables had losses < 0.4V ) or braindead use cases ( powering HDDs with peak >1A currents directly through USB2 ).

 

RaspberryPIs A+ or PiZero consume less power and are WAY BELOW OPI ONE PERFORMANCE, Raspi2 has slightly less performance and comparable power consumption to OPI ONE.

 

Get a decent PSU with matching cable and enjoy Armbian on OPI ONE.

[nematocyst]

I've not had any troubles with power.  My Orange Pi+ uses wifi + USB kyb + USB mouse + (powered) USB drive without issue.  I bought the Plus with a power supply because I read people were having troubles.  Before it even arrived, I was browsing through my computer paraphernalia box and discovered my ancient Belkin F5D7230-4 uses the same barrel and has correct voltage / amperage.  I use it with an Orange Pi PC without issues.  I've since noticed many power adapters in my box of stuff that would work if they had the right barrel.

 

It is inexpensive to convert them if needed, though it's also inexpensive to just buy a correct adapter.  You can probably buy 10 barrels that would work for the cost of one adapter though.

[nematocyst]

This is slightly tangential, but how to cycle power on the Orange Pi+?  I'm not crazy about removing the barrel and re-inserting it, and it's quite inconvenient to do that at the wall plug.  The switch doesn't seem to do that task.

[tkaiser]

This is slightly tangential, but how to cycle power on the Orange Pi+?  I'm not crazy about removing the barrel and re-inserting it, and it's quite inconvenient to do that at the wall plug.  The switch doesn't seem to do that task.

 

The power switch can be used to wake up H3 from deep sleep (at least when using Armbian or Jernej's OpenELEC). Our legacy sun8i kernel supports 'suspend to RAM' and in this mode consumption drops down to 0.3W (connected USB peripheral's consumption adding to this). So this might be an idea. Or simply use a hardware switch (buy switch, cut the cable, put switch in between). An alternative to the barrel connector are GPIO pins 2/4 (for 5V) and 6 (GND -- or any of the other GND pins on the GPIO header). Or using a switchable power source (I misuse another Allwinner board for this currently, just writing a small tutorial in A10/A20 forum).