Update on my DIY Volumio Pi setups

EndersShadow

So I've been using Volumio (now on v3.3) on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ paired with a HiFiBerry DAC2 Pro, the Pi Official 7" touchscreen, and stepdown converter connected to a custom IR sensor that works with either an Apple TV Remote or PDP Gaming Remote Control

I inquired here about a good linear powersupply to get and ultimately purchased a Welbourne linear powersupply from @SCompRacer quite a few months back to make sure I'm giving it the best power I can.

The original configuration was:

Welbourne -> barrel to Micro USB -> Micro USB splitter

From there the connections go:

-> Touchscreen
-> Pi 3B+ -> HiFiBerry Dac Plus -> 5V out -> Stepdown Converter (converts 5v in to 3.3 v out) -> IR sensor


The system did WORK with the Welbourne, however the low voltage warning stayed on 24/7. This indicated the setup needed more power than the Welbourne could give, and as a result of the lower voltage I could see lackluster performance and/or SD Card corruption (and the SD card has the OS on it). Disconnecting the stepdown convert/IR sensor would bring the power draw down to where the warning would go away, but I wanted to try and maintain the IR sensor.

So I spent most of today doing some digging and tried everything under the sun to try and reduce the power draw since a lot of the Pi's features are not being used. To try and reduce power I tried:

• Disabling HDMI output (the official touchscreen uses the DSI connector so its not affected)
• Reducing powerdraw for USB ports to 600ma (originally set to 1200ma or 1.2a)
• Turning off the usb ports entirely (which also turns off ethernet since it uses the same USB controller), and running on just wireless
• Turning off WiFi and Bluetooth and running on ethernet

A few things I didn't try because I anticipated they would negatively impact performance or my ability to troubleshoot:

• Underclock the CPU (Volumio sets the PI to "Performance mode" over "On demand" so the CPU is running full tilt 24/7/365)
• Turn off the Power LED's

That left me with 2 solutions:

1. Disconnect the IR sensor
2. Power the Touchscreen separate from the Pi, DAC, and IR sensor

I choose Option #2 for now since I had an extra powersupply from when I switched in the Karma Ifi powersupply (thanks again @Clipdat) to my console setup.

Powering the touchscreen independent solved all my problems and let me undo most of the changes noted above. I did go ahead and leave the HDMI output disabled since I don't need to run more than the attached display.

I figured I'd post this here in case this could be useful to someone else.

newbie308

Most of the industrial displays I use suggest a dedicated power supply in their instruction manual. Sometimes, if I size and manage the power supply correctly, it works just fine. I'm glad you found a good solution that didn't limit your capabilities!