Problem Using UPS Board w/RPi 3B

[dfcolornet]

I am having troubles with one of the RPi UPS boards. I have NOT yet tried to do a firmware update, for fear of possible making it worse (since I know that doing a flash-n-crash can ruin a board). I am posting here because I cannot find a support e-mail, and am not sure if the problem is hardware or software, or if the former, how to reset the board using software.

I have one RPi UPS board that is working exactly as expected. The second one is exhibiting the following problems:

1. Unlike the first, if I shut down the second RPi (sudo shutdown now), and press button on the UPS board, it does NOT remove power from the RPi (the red LEDs remain on both the UPS board & RPi).

2. Unlike the first, whereby I can press the button on the UPS board to boot the RPi, on the second one I have to remove the power and both batteries, then re-insert the batteries, and then RPi boots automatically. However, the blue LEDs on the UPS do not light until I plug the power back in, even if the batteries have a change, put after plugging the power back in then 3 blue LEDs will light solid and one will blink. The button on the UPS board appears not to do anything.

3. The Python script always throws a Remote I/O error (the first board will on occasion return an error, but seems to only do that when the UPS is reading the batteries, as noted by the blue LEDs on the UPS turning off and then back on); see error message below.

4. If I insert uncharged batteries (18650s) in with the power plugged in, the batteries never charge, but the RPi will attempt to boot immediately with only one blinking blue light on the UPS, then fail (presumable because not enough power), and then turn off (no red power or green disk LED on the RPi), then a few second later it will try to boot again, fail again, and then turn off, and it will repeat this continuously every few seconds (I left it overnight, and when I removed the batteries and checked them externally, both were dead at less than 25%).

I was looking on your Wiki for a 'reset' to restore the UPS board settings, but could not find anything. I have never tried to update the firmware, and wanted to check with you first before attempting that (and I have no idea whether or not that might be successful).

Please advise. Additional details, including my config.txt, below.

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide. As I said, I bought another identical UPS board, which is functioning as expected. I thought that this one was originally working, but now seems to be completely non-functional. I thought it was working about a month ago, but not today.

Regards,

David E. Filip dfilip@colornet.com +1-212-338-0535

======

The hardware is a Raspberry Pi 3B (1.2, no plus):

Raspberry Pi Details: Type: Pi 3, Revision: 02, Memory: 1024MB, Maker: Sony

• Device tree is enabled. *--> Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2
• This Raspberry Pi supports user-level GPIO access.

======

When I try to run the python script, I always receive an error:

pi@merry:~ $ python3 bin/upsPlus.py

------Current information of the detected Raspberry Pi------

Raspberry Pi Supply Voltage: 5.196 V Raspberry Pi Current Current Consumption: 993.103 mA Raspberry Pi Current Power Consumption: 4888.141 mW

-------------------Batteries information-------------------

Voltage of Batteries: 4.208 V Battery Current (discharge) Rate: -146.098 mA Current Battery Power Consumption: 478.049 mW

Traceback (most recent call last): File "bin/upsPlus.py", line 65, in aReceiveBuf.append(bus.read_byte_data(DEVICE_ADDR, i)) File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/smbus2/smbus2.py", line 433, in read_byte_data ioctl(self.fd, I2C_SMBUS, msg) OSError: [Errno 121] Remote I/O error

========

Here is full /boot/config.txt:

For more options and information see

http://rpf.io/configtxt

Some settings may impact device functionality. See link above for details

uncomment if you get no picture on HDMI for a default "safe" mode

hdmi_safe=1

uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible

and your display can output without overscan

disable_overscan=1

uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console

goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border

overscan_left=16

overscan_right=16

overscan_top=16

overscan_bottom=16

uncomment to force a console size. By default it will be display's size minus

overscan.

framebuffer_width=1280

framebuffer_height=720

uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output

hdmi_force_hotplug=1

uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (this will force VGA)

hdmi_group=1

hdmi_mode=1

uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in

DMT (computer monitor) modes

hdmi_drive=2

uncomment to increase signal to HDMI, if you have interference, blanking, or

no display

config_hdmi_boost=4

uncomment for composite PAL

sdtv_mode=2

uncomment to overclock the arm. 700 MHz is the default.

arm_freq=800

Uncomment some or all of these to enable the optional hardware interfaces

dtparam=i2c_arm=on

dtparam=i2s=on

dtparam=spi=on

Uncomment this to enable infrared communication.

dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=17

dtoverlay=gpio-ir-tx,gpio_pin=18

Additional overlays and parameters are documented /boot/overlays/README

Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)

dtparam=audio=on

[pi4]

Enable DRM VC4 V3D driver on top of the dispmanx display stack

dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d

max_framebuffers=2

[all]

dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d

hdmi_force_hotplug=1

dtparam=spi=on

dtparam=i2c_arm=on device_tree=bcm2710-rpi-3-b.dtb dtoverlay=i2c-rtc,ds1307

enable_uart=1

dtoverlay=tft35a:rotate=270

hdmi_group=2

hdmi_mode=1

hdmi_mode=87

hdmi_cvt 480 320 60 6 0 0 0

hdmi_drive=2