Hi, I’ve been trying to set up BlueOS on a Raspberry Pi 4 for the last two days but it is not booting for some reason. I followed the instructions on the blueos documentation site:
Get blueos image and flashed it to a fresh 32GB microSD
Insert it into the pi4, power on
Connect to blueos.local to setup
I’ve noticed that pi4 never actually boots despite me checking and re-flashing the SD card multiple times using both etcher and pi imager.
Power LED is solid but ACT green LED is on for a second when powering on but shuts off immediately afterwards
Details:
I’m on W11
Powering the pi4 through USB-C port form my pc
Trying to connect to it using an cat6 ethernet cable
32 GB fresh microSD
I’d be glad if anybody knows what the problem may be.
Hi @BerkY -
Powering the Pi4 via a USB port is likely going to cause issues, even if it does work as very limited power can be delivered, unless it supports the PD protocol?
You can connect an external monitor via HDMI adapter and monitor the boot process - if not a power issue, it generally sounds like it could be a hardware problem.
BlueOS can also be loaded at the default address of 192.168.2.2, with your computer setup to have a static address on the same subnet (something like 192.168.2.1 or 192.168.2.101.)
Make sure you downloaded the correct BlueOS image (raspberry pi in the name.)
A 128 GB sdcard is default for the BlueROV2 and BlueBoat - you can use less but may run out of space for extensions and logs quickly!
The pi4 is borrowed, the person also gave me the wall adapter with it but whenever I power the pi using it I get green and red LEDs flashing(I dont know what this means I looked all over but I couldn’t find anything, my best guess is insufficient power). When I power it with the usbc it seems more stable. I used a multimeter to measure between TP1 and TP2 points and with the brick it basically looks like ~0V fluctuation and with the usbc I get ~4.68V which seems correct
I tried hooking up the HDMI but I only get a black screen in either case of powering
Right now we are gonna use the pi as an onboard computer for our custom submersible and are only looking to add a Node-RED extension so I hope 32gb will be enough just for the testing phase at least
I still feel like its a boot issue even though I am using BlueOS 1.3.1 and getting the BlueOS-raspberry.zip
Hi @BerkY -
The green led is the power led, it should remain on constantly. The red light indicates SD card usage, and is expected to flash! If it isn’t, the pi is likely not booting - this is definitely not an indication that anything is more table with less power! Using a 5V power supply rated for at least 3 amps is recommended for the Raspberry Pi 4. The Pi 4 actually draws 100mA more than a USB powrt can provide!
What are the TP1 and TP2 points?
4.68V is insufficient voltage to power the Pi… You’ll likely want to use a DCDC power supply like this one to power the Pi in your robot! Are you using a Navigator?
I am very confused on the led situation and it seems weird that everywhere I look online everybody says something different about that LEDs indicate.
The with the TP1 and TP2 points I meant the solder points behind the usb-c power port, that from what I read you can use to measure the input voltage.
I have tried to check if raspberrypiOS works if I flash it in and it did boot for a bit (some visuals and the rainbow screen, constant red led and irregularly flashing green led) but then just sat idle after a little with no HDMI signal and no green LED. Red LED remained constantly lit. It was getting ~5.01V from my measurements when I used my laptop charger during this time. BlueOS didn’t boot with the ~5.01V either.
I am fairly confident this is an issue with the power supply but it is very hard to diagnose because all I have to work with are online forums and many articles/guides that seem to be not for pi4 which is always held separate from 1,2,3. We are suppose to be getting another pi4 tomorrow so hopefully its power supply will work.
We are getting a navigator flight controller but the money is tight right now so navigator will wait a short bit while we get what we can get done with the pi4 for now.
Hi @BerkY -
This is definitely a power capacity issue - as stated a USB port is not sufficient to power (any) model of Raspberry Pi. 6 watts > 5 watts (typical USB port maximum.)
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I understand, so powering through USB-C port is just unable to draw enough power to even boot?
Right now its just a quick test/setup phase so we are less concerned about thrusters and more about a couple 3rd party sensors that we are using Node-RED extension to integrate into the BlueOS dashboard.
We were thinking of using the pins on the board as a very crude I/O with Node-RED to test the sensors before getting out navigator. This is probably far from ideal and I wouldn’t want to do it like this if possible
Thank you for the support form, we will definitely look into it.
Hi @BerkY -
Some devices can pull more power from a USB-C port, but a standard USB port can only deliver 5V at 1A, or 5 watts. The Pi is likely not negotiating a higher power connection from your USB port, and so the processor doesn’t have enough voltage to boot up properly.