Argon Boot Loop Power Issue

[DanJow]

I have a Boron in one box and an argon in another.

The Boron is powered by 2amp 5v wall wart.

The Argon is connected to Boron’s 3v and ground from a 3 ft ethernet cable.

The Argon seems to be stuck in a boot loop, flashing green 3 times and then white before cycling the same pattern repeatedly.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thank you,

[Colleen]

Hi Dan-

Your Argon needs a bit more power than you’re currently giving it. Try powering it with something in the 3.6V to 5.5V range and let me know if you have any further issues.

Thanks,
Colleen

[DanJow]

That fixed my problem, but now I have to add a battery to the argon side to provide backup power.

[rickkas7]

Are you powering the Boron by micro USB or the VUSB pin?

In either case you can connect the VUSB pin of the Boron to the VUSB pin of the Argon to power both.

[DanJow]

VUSB on both sides

[rickkas7]

Which Boron? If it’s a 2G/3G it will need 2A by itself so there won’t be 500 mA left over for the Argon and you’d need a 2.5A power supply.

Other than that, presumably there’s a loss of voltage. That cable does not seem particularly long. If it’s a standard 26 AWG cable that should be fine, but if you have a thin or flat cable, that could be as small as 32 AWG, which is probably too small.

Ideally, if you have an oscilloscope you could see what the power is doing. Adding a large capacitor at the Argon VUSB may help.

[DanJow]

Using the VUSB works, but I have to use a battery on both sides to provide backup power.

[rickkas7]

Does the Boron work without the Argon?

If it’s a Boron 2G/3G you need to use the power manager to reset the maximum input current. The default is 900 mA, which is not enough to power a Boron 2G/3G without a battery.

If it’s a Boron LTE, if that’s not working by itself, you may want to try a different power supply because a 2A power supply should be enough to power the Boron LTE without a battery.

[DanJow]

Turned out to be both the vusb needed 5v and neopexel was pulling too many amps.

So after fixed the power issue by providing 5v, I addressed only 1/4 the possible neopexels to keep the current down.

Thank you!

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	uint16_t i;
	
	for(i=0; i<strip.numPixels()/4; i++) {
		strip.setPixelColor(i, 70, 0, 0);
	}

	strip.show();