Yetiborg causing PiZero to shutdown

Submitted by Hzainon on Mon, 10/10/2016 - 19:36

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I have just finished building my Yeti. I created a short Python program to test that all the motors are running. As I am testing i would hold the Yeti up to avoid it running away and falling off my desk. The wierd thing is the wheels would spin as expected. However as soon as I put it down or apply small pressure to the wheel with my hand, my PiZero would shut down. I am not sure what to look for. Could it be my 9V battery is not providing enough power?

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piborg

Tue, 10/11/2016 - 14:26

It sounds like the motors are taking too much of the power from the battery and not leaving enough to generate the 5V for the Raspberry Pi.

There are two main solutions to this:

  1. If the battery is starting to get flat it can struggle to deliver its full current.
    Try a freshly charged battery if using a rechargeable or a brand new one if using a non-rechargeable.
  2. Limit the motors to not use the full 100% power.
    We have found limiting to about 95% output usually prevents this problem.
    We are using 95% in the Formula Pi race series without any trouble.
    The motors are strictly speaking only rated for 6 V, which is about 70% of a rechargeable "9V" battery.
    Our standard YetiBorg examples (found here) are set to use 6V.

Hzainon

Tue, 10/11/2016 - 20:35

Thanks for the pointers. Point 2 was my problem, trying to run at 100%. Will dowload the yetiborg examples shortly to avoid further problems.

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