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Orange Pi Zero 3: Power Usage Benchmarks and Efficiency Tuning

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In recent months, I’ve noticed that my file server has been shutting down frequently. The primary reason is that the UPS (LX2UPS) charge is no longer sufficient. It is likely that the 18650 cells have degraded, and frequent power outages have only worsened the situation. Therefore, I decided to investigate how this can be fixed. My server is built on an Orange Pi Zero 3 and a 2.5” SATA HDD in an external USB enclosure. To start, I decided to measure the actual power consumption. Test #1: Power Consumption Without Drives In this test, I will check the power consumption of the Orange Pi Zero board alone, without any peripherals. I am conducting the measurements using a USB power meter, which allows me to monitor instantaneous current and total power consumption in milliwatts (mW). First stage: 30 minutes of operation with Wi-Fi and Ethernet enabled, with no background processes. Measurements showed a consumption of 820 mWh . Second stage: The same conditions, but the Wi-Fi and Bl...
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Controlling the MT3608

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If you look at the MT3608 datasheet, you’ll notice that pin 4 is the Enable pin, designed to toggle the chip’s operation. A high level signal enables the chip, while a low level signal disables the voltage boosting. In the latter case, the output voltage will simply match the input voltage of the module. As we can see, EN is connected to the adjacent pin (5) of the IC, which is our input positive VIN . Therefore, to control the EN input, this trace must be cut. Initially, I wanted to use a rotary tool for this, but even the smallest burr turned out to be too large.   So, there was nothing left to do but cut the trace with a scalpel.   I’m doing all of this under a microscope, and in 15 seconds, the trace is gone.   Now it’s time to put everything together. I want to use the RCWL-0516 module as the control signal source. This module is a microwave motion sensor. As for the load, let’s use a 12V fan. We’ll supply 5V to the input from a regulated power supply. ...
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Power bank module H961-U v6.1

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Dimensions: 6.5 x 2.5 cm Weight: 10.8 g Continuous Current: 2.4A Dual Output Current: 5V 2.4A Input Voltage (B+ to B-): 3.0 - 4.2V Overcharge Protection Detection Voltage: 4.20 ± 0.05V Release Voltage: 4.100 ± 0.05V Detection Delay: <200 ms Over-discharge Protection Detection Voltage: 3.0 ± 0.10V Release Voltage: 3.10 ± 0.10V Detection Delay: <100 ms The module is marked H961-U v6.1 Quiescent Current The quiescent current from USB (when battery are fully charged) is 18.5 mA. The quiescent current drawn from the battery depends on the module’s state: 26 mA — for a few seconds after activating the module via the button, 15 mA — when the charge status display is on, 3623 µA — display off, but 5V is present at the output, 92 µA — the module has entered sleep mode. Charging Logic This module supports only standard 5V. There is no support for Quick Charge or Power Delivery. Testing with Deeply Discharged Battery The module f...
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Overview of DC-DC Step-down Buck Converters from Aliexpress

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Testing Conditions and Parameters — In most cases, I tested with an input voltage of 20V and an output set to 5V. The testing was terminated when any component on the module reached a temperature of 212°F(100°C). Dropout Voltage — This is the minimum possible difference between the input and output voltage. For example, if we have a 12V input and a dropout voltage of 0.7V, we cannot obtain more than 11.3V at the output. Quite often, the voltage drop is directly dependent on the current. Quiescent Current - This is the amount of current consumed by the module with no load connected. Switching Frequency - This is the frequency at which the power transistor controls the flow of current to the inductor. Higher frequencies result in lower output ripple, which allows for the use of more compact inductors and capacitors. However, there is a drawback: increasing the frequency increases the heat generation of the power transistors and the level of high-frequency noise. Non-s...
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Orange Pi Zero 3 - exploring GPIO

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GPIO (General-Purpose Input/Output, or General-Purpose Pins) is a fundamental concept that came into the world of powerful SoCs (System-on-a-Chip) directly from the realm of microcontrollers. It is the main bridge for your single-board computer to interact with simple external devices, in addition to more complex hardware interfaces (such as I2C, SPI, UART, or I2S). While specialized protocols transmit data streams, GPIO allows you to work at the lowest level -controlling individual digital signals. With each pin you can: Read the state (input): For example, check if a button is pressed, or if the signal is “1” or “0”. Control the state (output): For example, turn on an LED, activate a relay, or send a signal to another component. In this article, I want to provide a quick overview of the methods for working with GPIO on the Orange Pi Zero 3 (which is based on the Allwinner H618 SoC ). Of course, these methods are not unique and can be applied to other single-board computers a...
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