SparkFun JetBot AI Kit Battery randomly shutting off

Kits
1

Hello, I am experiencing the battery randomly cutting power to the connected ports.

My Jetbot AI kit came with a “Eunicell” battery and I cannot find it listed on the sparkfun products as a standalone item to buy. I can’t find it on ebay or other sites either. The battery looks identical to the ones used in the assembly tutorial (https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/as … ai-kit/all). Its not the one in the cover picture at the top of that webpage, but the one in the pictures throughout the rest of the tutorial further down.

This forum post (viewtopic.php?f=123&t=51117&p=208582&hi … ff#p208582) is the closest thing I could find related to my issue.

How can I prevent the battery from randomly turning off?

2

Hi Elon Musk,

The Eunicell battery was sourced specifically to work with the JetBot Kit and we do not sell it separately. During development, we went through a couple of options before finding this one that worked the best so the photos just show one of the previous ones and we have not reshot them yet. Just in case you were concerned, you do have the correct battery. Now, on to your issue.

Can you provide a little more information about the circumstances when the battery is turning off? Are you putting the Jetson Nano into a low-power mode when you notice the problem or is this just during normal operation going through the [Nvidia Examples? Is the battery indicating it is at full-charge with the 4 status LEDs? Does recharging it fix the issue (even if temporarily)? Also, have you double-checked to make sure you are using the right ports on the battery pack? The orange port is the high-current output and should go to the Jetson Nano and the black port should go to the USB Breakout on your breadboard.

Finally, if none of these suggestions help resolve the issue, can you please take a few photos of your JetBot including your soldering to the accessory boards and attach them to your reply? Please do your best to make sure they are clear and well-lit.](Examples · NVIDIA-AI-IOT/jetbot Wiki · GitHub)

3

Hey thank you for your response, sorry for not responding.

I’ve just been powering it from a wall outlet. If we end up needed more assistance I will make a reply.

4

Not a problem. If you run into any other issues, battery-related or not, let us know and we would be happy to help as much as we can.

5

I am having the same issue. I purchased two of these kits. One works perfect the other battery will power the Jetson Nano and the Motor Driver board for a few seconds and then shut off. When I plug the battery into the usb-c the Motor Driver board will stay on but the Nano still shuts off. The battery is showing a full charge and the jetbot works when powered directly from my computer. Yes the Jetson is in 5V mode (default in the shipped image and confirmed on initial boot and setup)

6

Hi mcinnovation.

It could be a bad battery pack. Did you purchase the kit directly from the SparkFun website or somewhere else? if you swap the battery pack with the one from the other kit, does it work then?

7

Yes, the battery pack was part of the jetbot kit. And after a swapping the batteries, it seems to be the battery. It seems to not be able to handle the draw. Can I RMA?

8

it seems to be the battery. It seems to not be able to handle the draw. Can I RMA?

As long as you got the kit from us, yes. Just fill out the form on [[this page](https://www.sparkfun.com/returns) with your order number and in the "Why do you want an RMA?" section add the URL for this forum post and we will get you taken care of. :-)](https://www.sparkfun.com/returns)
9

Will do. I’m going to full discharge the battery and re-charge it just to make sure. If that fails, it’s coming back your way :wink:

10

I also have two of the JetBot kits and have similar issues to mcinnovation. In my case, however, the nano and motor driver shut off regardless of which battery is plugged in.

Setup:

stock SD card image (5W mode)

battery powering the nano using the orange USB port, motor driver using the black USB port

battery at full charge before test

JetBot assembled as per the provided Assembly Guide (camera plugged in, I2C connected, WiFi module inserted, etc.), using no third party components.

Behavior:

Motor driver USB plugged in first, followed by Nano’s USB: Nano powers off during boot. Connecting to the Nano’s UART serial console shows that it dies soon after the kernel begins to boot (i.e. the line "Starting kernel… ")

Nano’s USB plugged in first, followed by motor driver: Nano boots as expected, before the motor driver USB is connected. Once the motor driver is plugged in, the Nano dies within a couple of seconds (but not immediately).

Note: once the Nano has died while running off of the batteries, the batteries will sometimes, but not always, need to be plugged into a charger before they will power the Nano back on again.

Trobleshooting:

Swap batteries (from both kits): both batteries die in the same manner described above.

Unplug pHat and all I2C/Qwiic connections: same behavior as above. This rules out the possibilities of the I2C ground being used as the motor driver’s return path or a faulty OLED board causing issues.

Power Nano from the barrel jack, motor driver from the battery: works as expected, can run jupyter notebook demos

Power Nano from one battery pack, motor driver from the other battery pack: works as expected, can run jupyter notebook demos

Note: while both battery packs were originally able to power the Nano alone (sans motor driver) without issue, one of them is now behaving erratically and will sometimes die even without the motor driver connected.

Any ideas other than RMA?

11

Hello jdkeller,

Unfortunately, an RMA will be your best bet with this issue. The behavior you have described could be a faulty battery pack. After you file an RMA request we’ll process for just a battery to be replaced so you don’t have to return the entire kit.