LED light flashing rapidly

I’m using BrickPi and already connected it to my pc and it successfully pinged and I can access to the dex.local, and then I try to run sample program.
And then, I find my motor won’t work with that example code and my LED light flashing rapidly (and i read that it caused because brickpi wasn’t connected to raspberry pi)
so, I do trouble shooting and i got this:

rickPi3 Troubleshooting Script log

Checking for hardware, and checking hardware and firmware version.

Manufacturer : Dexter Industries
Board : BrickPi3
Serial Number : 256490CC504E4B4B372E314AFF0B0F31
Hardware version: 3.2.1
Firmware version: 1.4.3
Battery voltage : 4.38
9v voltage : 9.11
5v voltage : 4.994
3.3v voltage : 3.348

and I cant figure out what the problem is?
i think my brickpi already connected with my raspberrypi well??

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This is a problem I am going to refer to “a higher authority”.

@cleoqc, do you have any idea what might be causing this?

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Weak battery probably

Yes, your RPi is connected to the BrickPi exactly perfect, but your batteries were too weak to drive any peripherals.

At least that is my opinion.

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Weak battery, definitely.

These boards stop working automatically if the voltages are too low.

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Okay I will try with higher voltage!
Maybe after another try and if I got another problem I will come back and ask you^^ thank you so much

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Thank you! I will come back after another try!
I’ll be back after my higher voltage are ready!

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“We recommend using an 8XAA battery pack (as shown in the picture).”

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Any reasonably quiet 12 supply rated at 1.5A or better should work just to try it on your desk, (motors not moving, or not driving wheels to move the 'bot).

I use a "universal laptop power supply that has a 12v setting when I am doing development work on my GiPiGo, (on the bench, not moving), and it works well.  If you want mobile power, either one of Dexter Industries/Modular Robotics lithium battery packs, (recommended), or an 8-cell battery holder with GOOD batteries will also work, but the run-time with NiMH batteries will be quite limited.  Alkaline batteries are even worse.  I originallly got a 15-20 minute runtime with alkaline batteries, and about 45 minutes to an hour with good NiMH batteries depending on how much you use the motors.  Cyclicalobsessive uses the expensive Panasonic batteries, (which I did not get), and his runtime is a bit longer.  The Modular Robotics TalentCell 1203000 batteries give several hours of solid runtime before they die.  Note that the Modular Robotics battery pack is rated for about 4 hours, but that will depend on how much time you spend with motors running and how effectively you manage battery power.  In any event, it will be considerably longer than an 8-cell bettery pack with NiMH batteries.

If you do decide to go the “8-cell battery” route, @cyclicalobsessive has done considerable research on this subject and he uses Panasonic’s fancy, (and expensive), NiMH cells.  I can personally attest to the fact that alkaline cells don’t work well, and cheap NiMH batteries are little better.

Amazon has a version of the TalantCell 1203000 you can buy.

If you are in the US or Canada, I would get them from the Modular Robotics site.  Elsewhere you can try to find them on whatever shopping sites are available.

My recommendation:
Get an 8-cell AA battery holder along with some cheap batteries and try that just to see if the motors work and the LED stops flashing.  (Cheap alkaline batteries won’t last long, however all you want to do is verify that the system WORKS before investing money in GOOD batteries.)  If that works, then spring for the expensive NiMH batteries or the Modular Robotics lithium battery pack.

One last note:
If you do end up going with the expensive Panasonic NiMH batteries, get a GOOD “intelligent” battery charger. The cheap chargers just dump power into the batteries without regulating the charge and that wil (literally) burn up your batteries.

Try that and let us know what happens.
 

@cyclicalobsessive,
low power = flashing LED. . .

That totally slipped my mind - thanks!

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Thank you I’ve try it and finally I got one flash per second and I think it means my brickpi has good supply.

Thank you for all of you who answering me….
I’m so grateful…thank you so much!

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3. Check how fast the yellow LED is flashing.

If your yellow LED on the BrickPi3 is flashing:

  • Once per second, the battery voltage is good (at least 7.2v).
  • Twice per second, the battery voltage is adequate, but not great (less than 7.2v).
  • Four times per second, the battery voltage is too low, and the motors are automatically disabled. Either the battery voltage is below 6v, or the battery voltage is below 6.8v and the 5v voltage is below 4.85v.
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