Cleanly shutting down Udoo quad with external power switch?

Discussion in 'UDOO QUAD' started by spskeyes, May 15, 2016.

  1. spskeyes

    spskeyes New Member

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    I have my Udoo quad mounted in a box with a motor controller and power supplies for each. I have a main power switch for the power supplies , so the Udoo boots automatically when the power turns on. How can I have the Udoo shutdown cleanly when the power is turned off?
    For example, if I connect an external battery AND the DC power input, can I configure the OS (Ubuntu 14.04) to shutdown when the DC power goes off?

    Alternatively, is there a pin header for the Udoo power switch so I can give the Udoo its own switch and simply make sure I turn the Udoo off prior to switching off the power?

    Any suggestions are much appreciated.

    Cheers
     
  2. Maurice

    Maurice Active Member

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    If you make the SSD 'sync' in fstab, disk i/o seems slower, but there'd be no data losses on a sudden power outage, and perhaps you'd have no need of a proper shutdown.
     
  3. spskeyes

    spskeyes New Member

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    Well, that is the simplest solution for sure. But is it safe? I'm ok with the performance hit, but this will be installed some place where people are turning it on/off once a day for a couple of months. I don't want it to fail to boot one day...
     
  4. Maurice

    Maurice Active Member

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    How safe it is I can't tell, but I've been using this method for my Quad for quite a while, that is, until I connected a timer and used a cron job to schedule a shutdown. Before that I always just removed the power plug, and I never had a situation in which it didn't boot.
     
  5. waltervl

    waltervl UDOOer

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  6. vpeter

    vpeter Active Member

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    With just unplug power you can't shutdown anything - there is no time. But with some battery back up you could send shutdown signal to udoo which would shutdown regulary. This is something I have in plane for my router with hdd attached.
     
  7. spskeyes

    spskeyes New Member

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    OK, I think I'm going to use a battery backup and send a shutdown signal to the udoo when AC power is switched off.
    I want to go the simplest route, which is to connect both an external battery and DC power to udoo. I have another device in the same box which can provide a logic (3v) signal to udoo indicating when AC power is off.
    Two questions:
    1. Is there any issue with connecting an external battery AND dc power at the same time? Will udoo use the dc power and "ignore" the battery?
    2. Can anyone recommend a decent battery for the udoo? It will only have to power the udoo for a few seconds every day, but I want it to stay charged for several months.

    Cheers
     
  8. waltervl

    waltervl UDOOer

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    Any 12V traction (not start) battery will do. I beleive I somewhere put a link here on the forum to a powersupply that acted as an ups so could power the Udoo and charged a 12V battery. I will try to find it.
    Edit: Found it
    http://www.udoo.org/forum/index.php?threads/3060/
     
  9. Maurice

    Maurice Active Member

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    Can't you connect the DC with a (couple of) resistor(s) to a UDOO pin? As soon as the signal goes away you'll know to shutdown. Reduces the need for the other device to detect and signal the AC power being shutdown.
     

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