On the receiving end I have a PI5, a Hailo8 hat and an AI Camera, Keyboard and Mouse. On the supply end is a 12V 50ah Lithium Ion Polymer Battery. In between is a Buck Converter - 2PCS XY-3606T DC-DC Buck Power Module 24V 12V to 5V 5A Power Module Converter : Amazon.com.au: Electronics - but it is not doing it’s job. Maybe it is, but I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that the PI5 is complaining. What do I do to make it a happy little PI5?
Hi Trevor.
As usual with some of these dubious Chinese devices there is no or little real information available. Not that I can find anyway and I have looked as far as I am going to.
If there is some sort of current limit adjustment you might be reaching this and the voltage will reduce accordingly. I believe RPi devices complain bitterly when this happens.
Or are you drawing more than 5A and hitting current limit anyway?
Cheers Bob
What is the indication on the Pi that it needs more power ??
The official Plug Pack is the only device the Pi will be happy with and not complain through software. Any other power supply it will say it does not have enough power when it obviously does in your case.
You can ignore the message or change settings to stop it occuring.
(What I did recently in a similar setup to yours)
This is what I copied from Raspberry Pi Documentation some time ago and I cannot find the page now to provide the link. The reason I copy this stuff.
USB boot and power supplies
By default, USB boot is not enabled with a 3A power supply. However, setting
usb_max_current_enable=1
in the
/boot/firmware/config.txt
file will override this and enable USB boot with a lower wattage power supply.
Regards
Jim
It boots.
The Pi power supply for the pi5 works fine, but I’ll be out in the field with no way to plug in. I can’t see any way of tuning the buck converter, but I wouldn’t know what I was doing anyway. How do I ensure it will be getting the power it needs?
1 Like
Hey Trevor,
The Pi 5 wants to see power provided using the USB PD protocol. This tech allows it to communicate with the power supply to ensure it is getting the appropriate voltage and current to run at full power.
If the Pi is not powered with a USB PD power supply it will always display that warning as a precaution. From my understanding, it will limit the power output to the GPIO pins in this state but the Pi itself should work as expected assuming your power source is actually outputting 5V 5A.
If needed, you can turn off this warning as James has described above.
If you run the terminal command vcgencmd get_throttled you can check if the Pis processor is actually being throttled due to a low input voltage or if the warning is just the Pi being confused about the input.
If the response you get from that command is throttled=0x50005 it means the Pi is being throttled due to low power. Otherwise you should be good to go!
Hope this helps! 
What is available without breaking the bank that would give me usbpd so I can get past this problem? Thanks for all the help guys, it’s very much appreciated.
Hey @Trevor254738,
You would probably need to look into an alternative battery that is capable of USB PD to remove this warning entirely.
To be clear, this message is intended to serve as a warning for you to verify the power source yourself. If you are confident that Buck Power Module is providing 5V 5A then you should have no problems running the hardware you mentioned above.
The warning message is just the Pi telling you that it can’t verify that it is being correctly powered but with your current setup you should have no power issues as far as I can see.
Hope this helps!
I’m going to remove the warning as suggested and will take a test drive to another airport and try this beastie out. If it works, I won’t worry about it, but if it doesn’t last the day, more thought will have to go into it, followed by more cash. Thanks everyone.
1 Like
The Pi when idle draws about 0.5A, with the AI board it may draw up to 1.5A, maybe more. Have not tested that part.
The 5V5A specification is to power the Pi up to 1A and each USB port up to 1A.
The buck convertor is more than capable of powering what you listed in your original post.
And most likely the current drain would be less than 2A.
If you are concerned about the power output of the buck convertor, do a static test. Connect it to a wire wound resistor, and lower the resistor value, checking the current and the voltage. WARNING: the resistor will get very hot even at 1A.
Regards
Jim
Even with the edits I’ve made and an uninstall, I still keep getting those popups about low power. Not to worry. What do you think about this: https://www.lindy.com.au/0-5m-usb-3-2-type-a-to-c-cable-10gbps-5a-pd?srsltid=AfmBOor-INIScWqVC5P6Aq1vQTmyIaXMsJ7TM7rpWEqTXsb2Ra-b_9SB will it suffice?
Hey @Trevor254738,
The overall issue here is that the Pi5 does not know that the supply is capable of providing 5A of current.
The Pi5 has a UFP (Upstream-Facing-Port) Power Delivery Negotiator, or something very similar. This is an IC that “looks” upstream (to the supply) for an indication that the supply is capable of supply 5A at 5V. The supply must have the ability to communicate in a similar way, typically this is done with a DFP (Downstream-Facing-Port) Power Delivery Negotiator.
Your buck converters are capable of 5A, but they lack the DFP PD Negotiator necessary to inform the Pi5 that they are.
Generally, a “PD” cable, is just one that has been confirmed to work well at these heightened power levels. They often do not contain any sort of negotiator.
In my opinion, your best options are as follows:
-
Obtain a battery/power supply that is listed as “5A PD capable”, or a different buck converter that is listed as “5A PD capable”
-
Obtain a PD power board, such as this PD Power Extension Board from the Pi Hut, which can accept anywhere from 9-24V and immediately step it down to 5.15V at 5A. There are cheaper options for this type of product, but if you are unfamiliar with the way power supplies and power delivery works, I would recommend spending the extra cash on the safe option.
Hope this helps!
Thanks Zach, have you got a link to that power board?
Hey Trevor,
Meant to link it in my above post, sorry!
Here you go:
# Adafruit USB Type C Power Delivery Dummy - I2C or Switchable - HUSB238 - STEMMA QT / Qwiic
I’m not sure if I can fit that in as the Pi has a hat already.
Will this work? I can get it quicker.
Hey Trevor,
The link you sent is a receiving-end USB-C PD dummy. It allows you to “spoof” the receiving end to trick a PD-capable supply into giving you the voltage you want (it’s not really “tricking” it into anything, you’re just giving it the response it wants).
Unfortunately, sending-end USB PD dummies are harder to come by. I would say that power extension board is the closest you’ll get without crazy price.
The Power Extension Board doesn’t need to attach to any of the pins on the Pi5 itself. Realistically, you can put it anywhere you want, as long as the connections are there.
You really just need to wire your 12V to the input on the PD board, and attach the included USB-C cable as seen in the image below.
Thanks Zack, I’ll purchase that. And thanks to everyone that replied.
