Thanks a lot Tony, I just received email from the support team.
Any updates on this?
Please reach out to the support team. They sent us a spare power switch
Hello @tony-white - our group has to remove power to motors for E-stop compliance needs, so we are considering powering things off of the 5V OUT on the power switch. Since you mentioned some undesirable behaviors, could you clarify if this is related to the 5V OUT functionality?
Hi @Fishy -
I need more context!
The on/off switch in the Blue Boat cuts power to both the battery voltage output as well the 5v output. ESCs are powered from battery voltage, and the Pi/Navigator stack from 5v. It’s not possible to switch one and not the other with this unit.
Are you talking about using the Blue Robotics penetrator form factor switch? It is rated for either voltage level, but only 5A, and would therefore burn up if used to power ESCs under load…
Hi @tony-white , apologies, I was under the mistaken impression that the Pi was powered by the ESC via the 5V bus. However, the Nav light is powered by the 5V bus, so we were wondering if we could instead use the 5V OUT port on the switch assembly to instead power that 5V bus.
Hi @Fishy -
Do you mean the Nav Light is powered by the 5V rail coming from the ESC, and you’d prefer to use the 5V output of the main power switch that currently powers the Raspberry Pi? I’m not sure what advantage that gives you- you want the nav light to continue even when the ESCs are switched off? How are you switching the ESCs off?
You’re welcome to try - keep an eye out for low-voltage warnings (and associated issues) from the Pi…
No, I was wondering if the 5V/8A output on the power switch would be able to power the nav light. The ESCs are being switched off with an aftermarket E-stop system.
Hi @Fishy -
That should work but we haven’t tested that configuration. Let us know how it goes!
Your estop could alternatively just “break” the signal lines between the Navigator and ESC (but then you’d need to be switching 2 channels…)
We’re actually competing in the RobotX competition with the BlueBoat platform, so the rules generally require that the E-stop physically disconnects power to actuators, which is why we are taking this approach. We may end up opting to not power the nav light since we have a separate indicator tower, but I will let you know if we decide to and it works. Thank you!