Powering Raspberry Pi separately?

Submitted by tylersb124 on Fri, 02/02/2018 - 17:37

Forums:

Hello,

I just received my Diddyborg v2 in the mail and I'm very excited to start building it. I'm planning on connecting a LIDAR sensor to the Pi 3 via USB that draws ~450mA, and have been concerned that the ThunderBorg will have trouble powering the Pi, Motors, and sensor at the same time. Even if it is capable of handling it, I may want to use wall power instead of battery power for the Pi while i'm doing development on it (but still have operational motors).

I'm not too experienced with electronics (one of the reasons why I'm doing this project!). Would it be easy to have the ThunderBorg power only the motors and use wall power or a USB battery bank to power the Pi/Sensor? Which wires would I have to change?

Thanks!

piborg's picture

piborg

Fri, 02/02/2018 - 17:58

It is fairly easy to disconnect the Raspberry Pi from the power provided by the ThunderBorg. All you need to do is remove the two 5V power connections.

You can do this by:

  1. Cut the two 5V wires on the 3-pin cable so that only the GND pin is connected
  2. Use a 1-pin cable to connect the GND pin and leave the 5V pins on both boards disconnected

This will isolate the 5V power on the Raspberry Pi and the 5V from the ThunderBorg DC/DC.

Subscribe to Comments for "Powering Raspberry Pi separately?"