Andreas Wrede wrote on 4-10-2007 6:25: > I am trying to use a PV-149a (4-Channel Brooktree-based capture card, > see http://www.provideo.com.tw/DVRCard_149P.htm ) in the PCI slot. When > I power the unit up with the card in place, the power LED will flash on > briefly and then turn off and stay off. > > I tried an assortment of other card (SCSI, RS-232, Ethernet) without > problem, so I suspect the problem is the current draw of the board but I > have been unable to get the specs from the manufacturer. > > There is a 2.5" ATA drive in the box, which according to manufacturers > spec draws 2.7W during writing/seeking.
Power problem. I experienced similar problems with a pci card and a 2.5" hd in a 4801. It's the hd spinup that causes a power surge. A 2,5" spinning up draws much more than that 2.7 watt write/seek current you mention. According to the soekris manual the 4801 onboard regulator can supply 15 watt only (20 watt for the 5501). That's all you have for the whole thing (mainboard + hd + pci + mini pci). Verify by temporarily replacing the 2.5" by a cf. (I guess the onboard regulator shuts down when overloaded, at least in my case it didn't burn out.) > What is the max current a PCI card can draw when using the 40W power > supply? Or is this not power problem? Not sure what you mean by that 40W power supply. We're talking soekris, none of their onboard regulators handles that much power. (the nuclear powered net9901 is not expected any time soon ;-) Max. current of PCI boards varies wildly, depending on board type. Especially video boards with accelerators are notorious for their power demands. Basically there are three ways to get around this (I did choose the first option myself, think it's the most elegant): 1) Forget the hd and use a cf. You may want to do some OS reconfiguring to prevent excessive cf writing, but this is not as urgent as often thought. 2) Power the 2.5" from a separate 5 volt *stabilized* supply. Some rewiring of the ata cable is required. Don't forget to interconnect the ground (0 volt) terminals of both power supplies. 3) Bypass the onboard regulator with a jumper on the internal power header (see the manual). Power the whole contraption from an external 5 volt *stabilized* supply. Do *never* use the standard 12 V brick in this configuration; that would damage your soekris + hd + pci instantly. Note that none of this may work if your pci board has huge power demands (like some video boards, but then again, we're talking soekris). This might overload the pcb power tracks, but I'm not sure about this. success, Jan Hoevers _______________________________________________ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
