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GPIO Max Electrical specs

Hello all,

I wish to power my Up Squared Board using an external battery by connecting it to the GPIOs. However, I would like to know what kind of protection does exist and what are the max ratings.

For example, I have a 7.2V battery, is there an internal voltage regulator making it OK to connect it directly or should I use an external DC/DC converter ? Also, It would help me to know the peak current consumption of the board.

Thanks

Comments

  • nukular
    nukular New Member Posts: 61 ✭✭✭
    edited January 2018

    You can't just connect your 7,2V battery to the GPIOs (I assume you mean the40 header?).
    There is probably some voltage regulator for 5V->3V3, so the 3V3 part could be OK depending on the regulator used, but your 5V line would still be at 7.2V. I'm not sure what is connected to that line, but I would not risk that.

    Whether or not you can safely connect 5V to the 5V line on the GPIO header I don't know without the schematics, wich are not public as far as I know.
    You could take a multimeter and test if the +5V line from the normal power connector and the 5V GPIO are directly connected. If they are, then I see no problem in connecting powering the board through the GPIOs.

    As for the peak power consumption: The power supply that comes with the UP2 has a max output current of 6A @ 5V if I am not mistaken, so I would go with that to be safe. The normal Up came with a 5A PSU, so there is probably a reason they didn't just stick with that and exchanged it for a more powerful one.