Hi! I’m very interested in the Odyssey X86J4105 - it looks great
If I wanted to create an Uninterruptible Power Supply for it, what would be the best way?
Could I use the 40-pin GPIO connector with a RPi UPS hat (…bit with a bigger battery, to provide the required the voltage and current)? Would that fit inside the re_computer case?
Or would it be better to have an external power pack (outside the case)? I would like to mount an SSD in the re_computer case, if that’s possible, so there might not be enough room for a battery pack/UPS as well.
(I don’t want to run the Odyssey on battery power permanently: I just want a ~5min “safety net” to shutdown Linux gracefully if the mains power is cut).
Thank you in advance, and best wishes
Scoobz
P.S. I also saw this thread, which is interesting and useful…
For your need, it is best to have a proper UPS for the X86 instead of the RPI GPIO UPS. One more thing to be pointed out it’s that on X86, both USB Type-C PD and DC port can be used to provide power.
The power logic is this, when the DC port is supplying 12V and the USB Type-C PD is supplying 15V, then the X86 will power from the USB Type-C PD. When the DC port is supplying 19V and the USB Type-C PD is 15V then it will power from the DC port. The Higher supply rail will power the x86. So you may also find yourself using a small UPS that can supply 15V is good enough for this.
Im trying to find the same solution and find that the UPS and USB C solution will not work because even if you can trigger a graceful shutdown using a form of GPIO pin there are conditions when the power is restored the system will not autostart.
If you use USBC backup power the system thinks it has power all the time so no restart until the USBC bank is dead
if you use a UPS the system will not restart until both the USBC abd UPS are dead
If Seeed can’t find a solution we are looking into designing a custom 12v power board to resolve the problem.
This may not address what you guys are looking for, but here are two methods I used to handle uninterrupted power supply issues. One is to use a battery pack that allows pass-through charging (e.g. Zendure A6PD). This method allows you to supply power from the battery pack while the pack is plugged in to the wall charger. While this method lasts a long time, it does not help if you are looking for graceful shutdown in case of complete power outage (i.e. both the wall outlet and battery are gone).
The other method is to use a Lipo-charger, monitor the battery voltage level, and have a program to execute whatever action I need when the level goes below threshold. I use this for my mobile robot with Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Arduino reads the battery level from a Lipo charger, sends the value to Raspberry Pi which executes an action (e.g. cut down power usage or graceful shutdown). I use a relay to turn on/off the voltage reading to avoid a stray current issue.
yeah not good for a production embedded system. We’re currently designing a LiPo battery pass thru circiut with a power fail GPIO signal for graceful shutdown. requires new power brick and expensive circuit board but Seeed doesnt have a solution so we have to make our own
Yes, for production systems, I understand, custom design is a way to go. This may not help, once again but I use a pass-through lipo charger from Adafruit called PowerBoost 1000 (product ID 2465). This has a LBO pinout that sends High or Low at v <= 3.2v (this is a 5V product). They have a schemtic on their site that can be a useful reference. If you just need a signal for graceful shutdown, LBO is sufficient.
I used the OpenUPS module from Mini Box some time ago. I had a 4 stage LiPo cell using the intelligent charge monitoring, powering a Robin mini x86 board. The UPS board also had a connector to trigger the CPU power button if required and USB monitoring (using OepnUPS under Linux). Rather pricey though, HTH.
but I use a pass-through lipo charger from Adafruit called PowerBoost 1000 (product ID 2465). This has a LBO pinout that sends High or Low at v <= 3.2v (this is a 5V product). They have a schemtic on their site that can be a useful reference. If you just need a signal for graceful shutdown, LBO is sufficient.