Power the Omega without board.
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Hello everyone!
Today I received my Onion Omega. I backed it on Kickstarter and now here it is. But I have a simple question.
Is it possible to power up the Omega without a board? Because I don't have any! Can I just solder the Power Input pins to a regular usb cable?
Thanls!
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it needs 3.3v power, so you'll need to buy a regulator
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Ok, but i have a question: Why did they offer to buy ONLY the Omega ?! How are we supposed to use it without the proper alimentation ?!
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This is a question often asked. More details here:
https://community.onion.io/topic/163/input-voltage-for-omega-without-dock
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I wired the Omega to my Raspberry Pi GPIO pin and the Omega don't turn on. It's 3v3 also...
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It's quite possible that the GPIO doesn't drive enough current to power the Omega. Do the test here to isolate the problem:
https://community.onion.io/topic/982/power-dock-off-not-off/2Why did they offer to buy ONLY the Omega ?
Because it keeps the Omega package small when the 3.3V supply is available. If not, the mini-dock is a nice alternative.
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@Tom-Escolano said in Power the Omega without board.:
Ok, but i have a question: Why did they offer to buy ONLY the Omega ?! How are we supposed to use it without the proper alimentation ?!
There are clients who want to substitute their omega1 with a omega2. So they will have docks to use them.
And just for your information ... as soon as more ppl work with the new hardware we will get the necessary info's ... hopefully soon
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@Tom-Escolano said in Power the Omega without board.:
I wired the Omega to my Raspberry Pi GPIO pin and the Omega don't turn on. It's 3v3 also...
As long as you not have a schematics with the correct pin-out i would not play around without the necessary docks.
Without a working wifi you will not be able to access the Onion itself. The old docks (excluding the power dock) have a UART chip on it that you can connect with a USB over serial.
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@Luciano-S. I already checked the Pi and Omega Pinout... I think I'm gonna buy a mini dock instead of playing around
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@Tom-Escolano the Omega needs around 200mA of current, a GPIO pin of the Raspberry Pi has only a few mA, maybe 10 or even less. So no wonder the Omega does not come up
On the other hand, there's some chance to fry the GPIO of the RPi this way So in general - to power up a Omega without access to a dock, you need a proper 3.3V power source.
There are many 3.3V power converters available for breadboard experiments, for example this one which accepts anything between 4.5 to 12V as input.
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This is one of the worst products i ever experienced !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Its just a marketing trick to say "$5 world smallest linux server", there are many Soc products like this which all has 5V or more power intake with a regulator in build to normalize the operation voltage. Very disappointed with the product in first expression.
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@Gayan-Priyanatha said in Power the Omega without board.:
Its just a marketing trick to say "$5 world smallest linux server",....
They also mentioned "to be as Tony Stark " ... so if you don't have the knowledge of him it is just a piece of electronics you bought
I also find it very lousy how they treat their clients. "Let them down here in the forum and elsewhere ... "
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@Luciano-S. Thank you for the reply :). Seems they dont want developers to be open minded and use this for low cost applications. last night I used a variable power supply to power this up.
Min operation voltage : 2.6v @ 250ma
Max operation voltage : 3.6 @ 250maSeems it does not start if < 250 ma or similar. Funny thing is voltage around > 3.8V it works for cuple of seconds and restarts. Clever marketing I would say, they want there Power Dock to sold to us. Which it will not be smallest and cheapest Linux server.
Also you can power it up using 3V3 zenor with 20Ohms resistor for 5V/250ma USB input like Computer or a cheap mobile charger. (https://www.google.lk/search?q=3v+zener+diode+circuit&rlz=1C1CHBF_enLK714LK714&biw=1920&bih=919&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwisuazDwqnRAhXKsI8KHXzYBQ4Q_AUIBigB#imgrc=HZaFavh62ZO4FM%3A)
Or u can also try LD1117 as author has mentioned on page https://docs.onion.io/omega2-docs/hardware-prep-no-dock.html. Which is not very famous part anyway.
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@Gayan-Priyanatha It doesn't have to be LD1117, any fixed-voltage or adjustable voltage regulator will do. Doesn't have to be linear voltage-reg, either, like e.g. I use a simple switching-mode power-supply to power up mine. The things that matter are: the power-supply is connected to the correct pins, it supplies as close to 3.3V as possible and it can handle ~300mA or more.
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@WereCatf as i have mentioned clearly on my quote I have layeid down more than LD1117, but I like LD117 since its very cheap, or if u can not find it a simple voltage divider with a zenor (as mentioned earlier) would make the product more nicer. But my worry is why authers did not want to have a simpler electronics to have a build in regulator, where it would make this product more viable for IOT platforms.
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@Gayan-Priyanatha I can't say about the Onion-devs own views, but I personally see the Omega as a module for building your own devices, instead of as a more self-contained device and in and of itself like e.g. RPis or the likes are. If you need something really small and low-power for a project a module like this is much handier than even an RPi Zero. You may already have power-circuity, for example, and having a second one on the module would be a waste in multiple ways.
It's not viable for the same stuff as you might use e.g. an RPi; it's a niche-product and it has its own, sweet spot, and there are definitely cases where it's more viable than the alternatives.
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@Gayan-Priyanatha said in Power the Omega without board.:
Clever marketing I would say, they want there Power Dock to sold to us. Which it will not be smallest and cheapest Linux server.
You are totally unfair on this one. Doesn't the 3.3V pin go directly to the SoC? If so, Onion has nothing to do with this particular specification. MediaTek, the maker of the MT7688 IC did.
Funny thing is voltage around > 3.8V it works for cuple of seconds and restarts.
About the Linkit (a close Omega2 cousin), MediaTek says: Requires a regulated 3.3V. If a higher voltage is used, the board will be damaged. So there you go! Don't go over 3.3V +- 10%. Read the datasheet!
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maybe you are just not experienced enough to use the module. This is a system-on-module (SOM) that can be used to embed on your own PCB. A bit like the Intel Edison.
I think you should get a Raspberry Pi or Arduino, they are more beginner friendly
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@Fred-Blais, @fossette
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Arduino Pro min comes with a on board regulator for 3.3v power for the SoM. See how tiny the entire device with onboard regulator. Similar min size surface mount regulator comes in RPi as well. I do agree with the capabilities of Omega2. Incorporating a power source regulator to Omega in design stage would have made the module much more independent from power intakes if we had an on-board regulator. Think of a very small IOT device using Omega2 without much PCB around it, an internal regulator module have made the module much more robust. I don’t think I am unfair to ask for this from Onion authors. If you noticed the REPEATED, FREQUENT question developers asking on this thread I believe we are not asking too much.
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@Gayan-Priyanatha To my mind, the best combination if you want a reasonably small footprint is to use the Omega2 with a Mini Dock (https://docs.onion.io/omega2-docs/mini-dock.html#mini-dock). The main dimensions of the Mini Dock arevery close to those of the Omega2 and only adds a few mm with the Omega2 plugged in. It provides micro-USB for 5v power as well as a full size USB socket.
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@Gayan-Priyanatha said in Power the Omega without board.:
Incorporating a power source regulator to Omega in design stage would have made the module much more independent from power intakes if we had an on-board regulator. Think of a very small IOT device using Omega2 without much PCB around it, an internal regulator module have made the module much more robust.
I understand what you mean, it would be useful for plug n' play and having the less components possible.
I think the creator wanted to make the module as generic as possible. Depending on what your are trying to interface to, you would probably have to add different power supply to a custom dock. For example, I have a project where I have 6x 24V solenoid valves that consumes 75mA each and a large NEMA23 stepper motor that I supply 5V to.On the Arduino Pro Mini, the max voltage is 12V supply and the regulator can supply 150mA. What you do if you have a 24V power source? What you do if you need more than 150mA on the 5V (driving a stepper or relay)?
The less components you have, the more freedom you have to design what you want and choose your own parts. Personally the only thing that interest me is to have a CPU running Linux with RAM, Flash and WiFi. This is not something that can be done easily by an hobbyist on a 2 layer PCB. The others components such as power supplies/sensors/actuators are easy to integrate after that.
