2024-04-14, 12:34 PM
Hi there,
on March 21st I installed the MacArthur Hat on my RasPi. Everything was working fine: When I switched on the navigation, the RasPi booted, when I switched of the navigation the RasPi performed a shutdown. The NMEA connection worked also. It was perfect, I was happy! The system was running continuously with only short intended reboots for about two weeks. It stopped working on 6th of April.
Yesterday I (finally) had the time to search for possible reasons, why it stopped (I expected the SD card to have died - as usual). I realised, that the 2A fuse, i placed between the battery and the board's 12V, has been blown. There seems to be a short circuit on the board, because a newly fitted 3A fuse also blew immediately. When I analysed the data of the RasPi in the InfluxDB, I realised, that the damage apparently happened at the moment, when I started the boat's engine.
I have the following components (stacked from bottom to top):
RasPi 4B
MacArthur HAT + power module with soldered headers
Moitessier HAT
The power module is directly connected to the battery (with the fuse to protect the cable and the RasPi). The two NMEA wires are connected. NMEA 12V goes to 12SW. USB-power is not connected.
I checked the cable from the battery to the black plug with a multimeter, there is no connection between the black and the red cable. After fitting a new fuse, I reconnected the black plug to the black connector on the MacArthur HAT and the fuse blew immediately. As mentioned in this reply from Adrian (Release the Magic Smoke), I tested 12V and GND on the black connector with my multimeter in continuous mode -> it beeped (also on the connector where the DC/DC convertor sits). I disconnected the DC/DC convertor and checked 12V and GND -> it seems to be ok (Multimeter says "0L").
Without the 12V and 12V SW connected, the RasPi and MacArthur and Moitessier still work perfectly with USB power connected. Even without the 12V connection the MacArthur HAT is the perfect solution for me on the boat! Thank you for all your work!
- What part could starting/cranking the engine have in the problem?
- What can I do to help finding the cause of the problem? (Please break it down "Barney style", I am more on the software side, than a hardware developer)
- When I power the RasPi with USB: Can I still leave the 12SW connected to startup/shutdown the Pi when switching on/off the navigation?
on March 21st I installed the MacArthur Hat on my RasPi. Everything was working fine: When I switched on the navigation, the RasPi booted, when I switched of the navigation the RasPi performed a shutdown. The NMEA connection worked also. It was perfect, I was happy! The system was running continuously with only short intended reboots for about two weeks. It stopped working on 6th of April.
Yesterday I (finally) had the time to search for possible reasons, why it stopped (I expected the SD card to have died - as usual). I realised, that the 2A fuse, i placed between the battery and the board's 12V, has been blown. There seems to be a short circuit on the board, because a newly fitted 3A fuse also blew immediately. When I analysed the data of the RasPi in the InfluxDB, I realised, that the damage apparently happened at the moment, when I started the boat's engine.
I have the following components (stacked from bottom to top):
RasPi 4B
MacArthur HAT + power module with soldered headers
Moitessier HAT
The power module is directly connected to the battery (with the fuse to protect the cable and the RasPi). The two NMEA wires are connected. NMEA 12V goes to 12SW. USB-power is not connected.
I checked the cable from the battery to the black plug with a multimeter, there is no connection between the black and the red cable. After fitting a new fuse, I reconnected the black plug to the black connector on the MacArthur HAT and the fuse blew immediately. As mentioned in this reply from Adrian (Release the Magic Smoke), I tested 12V and GND on the black connector with my multimeter in continuous mode -> it beeped (also on the connector where the DC/DC convertor sits). I disconnected the DC/DC convertor and checked 12V and GND -> it seems to be ok (Multimeter says "0L").
Without the 12V and 12V SW connected, the RasPi and MacArthur and Moitessier still work perfectly with USB power connected. Even without the 12V connection the MacArthur HAT is the perfect solution for me on the boat! Thank you for all your work!
- What part could starting/cranking the engine have in the problem?
- What can I do to help finding the cause of the problem? (Please break it down "Barney style", I am more on the software side, than a hardware developer)
- When I power the RasPi with USB: Can I still leave the 12SW connected to startup/shutdown the Pi when switching on/off the navigation?