Suggestion/wishlist for future Fin iterations: Enhanced USB/mPCIe power supply

balenaFin
1

I’ve noticed that it’s not reliable to run both

a) an external SSD (Samsung EVO 860) via a USB adapter

and

b) an onboard Sierra Wireless MC7455 mPCIe LTE modem

at the same time, even if you feed 12V/20W into the Fin.

For the time I solved this by feeding additional 5V power into the SSD, but that’s a bit inconvenient.

So, this on my wishlist for future iterations: Use something that can feed more power into USB-attached devices.

Also on my wishlist: Document how much power can be used by USB devices (alone and together, etc), based on how much power is fed to the Fin.

4

@jschon did you try running your setup on 5V via the HAT pins?

5

@chrisys

I did not. But, yeah, I guess that should probably work!

I’m afraid we moved back to using regular Raspberry Pi 3B+, industrial micro sd cards and desoldered USB sockets plus custom USB cabling at the moment. Still on balenaCloud though. It’s really hard to get off your software platform once you’ve gotten used to its conveniences. :slight_smile: