Hi everyone, I need some help troubleshooting a power issue with my uConsole custom build.
My Setup:
Device: uConsole running DragonOS Rex (Kernel 7.1.3)
Battery Mod: Custom back cover holding 10x 3.6V LG batteries with a 20A BMS
Internal Add-ons: AIO v2, 2x MediaTek wireless cards, a Yardstick One, and a small USB hub housed inside the back cover.
The Problem: The uConsole boots up and runs fine initially. However, whenever I launch SDR
software or heavily utilize the internal USB/wireless devices, the system completely shuts down after a short period.
An AI tool suggested that current spikes are causing a voltage sag, which triggers the BMS over-current/short-circuit protection and cuts power entirely. Its suggested fix is to add a 2200µF (10V to 16V) capacitor between the BMS and the uConsole to smooth out those spikes.
My Questions:
Will adding a capacitor actually solve this issue?
Or is the root cause something else (e.g., BMS trip limits, wiring gauge, or power draw exceeding limits)?
Any advice or guidance from those who have done heavy power mods on the uConsole would be greatly appreciated
The AXP228 that powers the uConsole will put out a max of 20w. My guess is you’re going over that. Just a uConsole with the hackergadgets addons with the AIO will pull 17w with the radios on.
I also use many radio applications,decoding all kinds of signals, with several DSD-FME automations. I had this problem when using batteries rated below 20 amps—the Molicel M35A 3500 mAh is one example. Capacity is a bonus; for radio applications, the important thing is a constant and stable current supply.
I switched to Molicel P30B 3000 mAh batteries, which support a higher 30-amp discharge rate, and the problem practically disappeared. This may solve your problem, but you need to do the calculations and declare the correct battery capacity in config.txt to calibrate and get reliable readings.
Well, these are the specifications of the two batteries I recommend using, as both are excellent:
#Molicel M35A 3500mAh 20a - Good battery life and capacity, but it’s suitable for everything EXCEPT radio applications. #dtoverlay=clockworkpi-custom-battery #dtparam=charge_full_design_uah=7000000 #dtparam=energy_full_design_uwh=25900000
#Molicel P30B - 30a - The best for Radio Applications
dtoverlay=clockworkpi-custom-battery
dtparam=charge_full_design_uah=6000000
dtparam=energy_full_design_uwh=22200000
Well, I hope this helps.
Note: In general, depending on what you do with radio applications, the RP1 can get quite hot. Radio applications are sensitive to thermal radiation, so it’s important to keep an eye on the temperature.
So… while the batteries are fully charged, you basically have no problems with either of them. The problems begin when the available current—not just the voltage—drops and you need sustained power to process millions of I/Q samples.
For a constant SDR workload, you need a stable current supply and high-discharge batteries. The AXP228 can handle this, but besides choosing the right batteries, you also need to configure it so it correctly understands the battery pack.Try declaring the pack using the correct parameters and see what happens—with caution, obviously.
One more thing: I don’t know whether you’re using a CM4 or CM5. The CM5 has incredible processing power, but it does run hot. Sometimes, properly tuning the SDR settings—or even adjusting the power-management parameters—can help. But in my use case, I only solved the problem after switching to 30 A batteries.
Yes, you’re right. The issue isn’t the batteries—it’s the load. Once all the peripherals are running simultaneously, the total power demand can exceed what the AXP228 is designed to handle. At that point, it doesn’t matter whether you’re using two batteries or ten, or whether they’re rated for 10 A or 30 A each. The AXP228 remains the bottleneck. Exceeding its practical power limit can result in voltage drops, overloaded 5 V rails, BMS/PMIC interactions, and ultimately system instability or unexpected shutdowns.
I’m curious, and based on a simple calculation, a CM4 could theoretically handle all of this using a AXP228, while a CM5 might not:
CM5:
2× MediaTek: ~4 W
Yard Stick One: ~0.5 W
USB hub: ~0.5 W
AIO V2: ~5 W
uConsole with CM5: ~6–8 W
Total: approximately 16–18 W under typical use, potentially reaching ~22–25 W with everything under full load—SDR transmitting, maximum screen brightness, and CPU running at full capacity.
CM4:
2× MediaTek: ~4 W
Yard Stick One: ~0.5 W
USB hub: ~0.5 W
AIO V2: ~5 W
uConsole: ~4 W
Total: approximately 14 W under typical use, with a realistic range of ~12–20 W depending on the workload.
Even in both scenarios, they would be operating within very clear limits.If you’re using a CM4, you’re probably exceeding 20 W by a small margin. I don’t know how this BMS works, but it may be shutting down as a precaution. If you’re using a CM5, I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what’s happening.
Note: And I’ve easily seen the AIO V2 draw over 7 W while using SDR.
To clarify all this stuff is not working at the same time. I’m using AIO v2 app to control USB devices. The only thing I switch ON now is SDR. Inside uConsole I have a Cm5 board. I will configure battery today in the system and I order some capacitors maybe that will help. All this stuff works normally on dual battery board I checked
only one way to be sure really, measure and log the voltage at multiple points, so before the BMS, after the BMS, after the AXP
you definitely can go adding random capacitors and hope that fixes it, but if you want to be sure you need to measure.
With 10 batteries in parallel, the current capacities of the cells are unlikely to be the issue
If uconsole have its own battery management system dose it have sense to remove BMS from my battery pack and just directly connect batteries to uconsole? Same system as native just more batteries?
The answer is: it depends, because you need something (PPTC fuses,diodes etc and etc) to handle the bateries. If you connect it directly, I’m not sure whether the AXP would be able to handle them. A typical arrangement would be something like this:
I’m using Hackergadgets m2 hdd board without battery holder.
I did some searching and I found this topic. My issue could be related to this. I checked USB and it switching console off when USB HDD connected. I will add capacitor to my power bank and replace the one on the main board. May be that will fix my issue.
