Powering The Board - OLIMEX OLinuXino-MAXI User Manual

OLIMEX© 2012 OLinuXino User's Manual

2.4 Powering the board

The board is powered either via the PWR jack or via a battery. It should be supplied from a 6V to
16V source with maximum current of 1A from the power jack.
All measures below are taken at 10V.
If measuring the current consumption it should be around 0.06A before initializing all the
peripherals. The consumption raises to 0.12A without LAN and USB hosts initialized and Linux
running. The consumption goes up 0.15A with the Linux running when LAN and both USB hosts
initialized.
If you have a standard USB flash drive attached to a USB host, Linux and LAN running the typical
consumption is around 0.20A.
When powered by the typical 3.7V battery the LAN and USB-hosts will be powered-off if you use
the external 3.3V DC-DC (they will stil work if using the internal in the processor DC-DC). The
consumption from the battery when Linux is running is around 0.75A.
IMPORTANT! We discovered a situation which might leave some of the SD cards (iMX233-
OLinuXino-SD) in unrecoverable state when powering OLinuXino-MICRO. The problem
might occur if two specific conditions are met simultaneously:
1)Plugged iMX233-OLinuXino-SD micro SD card with holographic sticker on its back side
(some of the cards we have distributed are from a brand that places holographic sticker on
their backs, the other half lack such a sticker)
2)Plugged USB-SERIAL-CABLE-F at the moment when powering the board
If you happen to have received SD card with holographic sticker on its back side and you use
it with OLinuXino-MICRO and you plug USB-SERIAL-CABLE and then you power the
board there is a chance of malfunction of the SD card.
There are two possible workarounds to protect the SD card. The first one is simpler and the
second one requires some soldering experience.
Workaround 1: First insert the iMX233-OLinuXino-SD card and then power the board (and
if powering the board from a battery also press the PWR button). Wait 4-5 seconds and then
connect the USB-SERIAL-CABLE-F. After the initial power-up it is safe to use the reset
button.
Workaround 2: You will need a Shottky diode. The Shottky should be soldered on the USB-
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