wont turn on?
so its taken me a little while to find the right size connector -- 2.1 x 5.5mm for the kiwi 2. my power supply is 5.25v at 1a (positive to centre), so that should be good. i dont think its turning on though, but i don't know how to tell. i'll plug it in to the wall, leave it for a few minutes, load up http://kiwisdr.com/quickstart/index.html#id-new-k2-owners and type in 21183.kiwisdr.com and i get a "this site cannot be reached" error. what my next move, here? its probably something dumb but i dont think there are any blinkey lights or a fan to hear to be sure its actually powering up.
Comments
wait a sec, just to be clear the power supply is 2a peak, but i measured it with a 1a load.
1 amp is inadequate and a 2A PSU may slump...
There should be LEDs flashing on the Beagle. Measure the V at the board connector itself or the header pins. Try powering the Beagle with the kiwi removed.
whats slump mean? i see the recommended switching psu in the write ups are 3 amps, but the write up says the unit will eat near 1.5a at peak.
Slump is when the voltage sags. If you have a bench supply or something that can provide a solid 5V @ several amps, try that first to rule out a PS issue.
I dont have a bench supply .. I've got some basic stuff like a multimeter though. I popped it out of the case it and at the back of the plug (looking at the pcb board) the terminals show 5.65v. Which is what this PS puts out with no load -- same is if I jam the probes in to the business end of the power supply.
find and use a 3-4A PSU...
Roger that. I'll have to buy one, Im a new(ish) ham so I don't have much of a pile of debris and parts yet. Thanks!
Do you turn on the power supply while the kiwi is plugged in?
Some power supplies ramp up too slow for the kiwi and it won't start...
Nah this just is a switching supply, there's no on/off switch on it. Turns out it's 2.8A, so maybe it's slumpy but idk, should be enough. I'll see about a different supply before I start squawking too hard.
Because I was going to measure current, I just tried using a Meanwell 15V switching power supply I had on hand with a boost/buck converter...and turning the converter on was too slow to power on the Kiwi. I should have at least 1.7A available, but I think the ramp up (of voltage?) was too slow to give me LEDs or anything. So FWIW, a better power supply might be the trick... (The converter has a current measurement ability, which is why I wanted to power it through that momentarily)
I've been using an Acopian 5EB250 for my KiwiSDR2, no problem so far. They're on Ebay generally for <$45, but you'd have to add your own fusing, wiring, etc.... You could just about buy a 13.8V/3A power supply and a 7805 with a heatsink for that price, too. (At least then you'd have the 13.8V to use for other things...),
I just measured my current draw with that for my KiwiSDR2 AND a TP-Link WR802N Wifi bridge (known to be low power draw), and was seeing under 1A.. like 0.7-0.9A generally.... Not saying there's not shorter (<.3s) spikes, but point being, the average current draw isn't very high....but you need a supply with no sag, especially under that initial startup load.
-Nate
N8BTR