by omriasta » Thu Apr 02, 2020 5:12 am
Seeing this as well with Raspberry Pi 3, it all worked well until I upgraded to the Buster image. Now I get corrupted messages from ad2pi. Downgrading back to stretch did not resolve the issue.
Did some testing and this is what I found:
- Initially thought the device firmware got botched but I couldn't get it to respond so also could not flash firmware.
- Then I thought maybe the battery for the alarm panel is failing (also powered using the stepdown sold here), replaced the battery, no dice
- Finally I have a powerbank laying around that is designed to power a pi, used that and everything works perfectly.
I believe that the pi 3 isn't getting enough power to run with the ad2pi. Just to be clear the pi still boots up and works fine however the flashing red LED on the pi indicates that the voltage is low which I assume is causing the ad2pi to spew out garbage characters. I also know that the pi 3 is very finicky and even 5v 3amp chargers will not work to power it with the ad2pi. I think that the pi actually needs closer to 5.1 or 5.2 volts to operate correctly with the ad2pi. I have ordered an adjustable step down from ebay to test this out and see if upping the voltage to 5.1 or 5.2 will work.
As a side note, when the ad2pi is connected and the pi is powered by the stepdown I ordered here it makes a very subtle whirring noise (the ad2pi) and the red LED on the pi 3 does not come on at all. When I connect the 5v 3amp charger, the red LED flashes and the ad2pi does NOT make the whirring noise. When connected to the powerbank, red LED is solid, no whirring and ad2pi functions properly.
I will update here when I receive the new stepdown with the results.
