LowPowerLab Forum

Hardware support => Moteino => Topic started by: drclaw on April 18, 2015, 04:11:51 AM

Title: Moteino USB, and powering via non-computer USB ports
Post by: drclaw on April 18, 2015, 04:11:51 AM
Hi guys,

I recently received an order of a few USB and non-USB moteinos which I have been very happy with.

A question regarding the USB versions - can they be powered off a USB plug pack or similar?

I've tried several plug packs here (samsung, apple, htc, and an external portable USB power pack), and the moteinos don't power up... they work fine off a computer though. Am I missing something? The moteinos that I have connected via an FTDI->Moteino interface work fine off the same ports.

I could always sacrifice an old USB power cable and wire it up directly to the VIN, but if I can do it through the provided USB port that would be easier :)

They are both R5 USB Moteinos for reference.

Any comments / suggestions welcome.

Thanks :)
Title: Re: Moteino USB, and powering via non-computer USB ports
Post by: Felix on April 23, 2015, 10:40:15 PM
There's no reason that I can think of why they should not work as long as long as the USB provides 5V to the boards. Can you verify that?
Title: Re: Moteino USB, and powering via non-computer USB ports
Post by: drclaw on April 26, 2015, 12:27:17 AM
Hi Felix,

Yep it's definitely getting 5v.

I ended up working out the issue - seems that when I have SPIFlash flash.initialize() in the setup routine - if I remove that (or only do it when serial is enabled) it works fine... not sure why, haven't had a chance to jump into the code and investigate.

Thanks for the reply.