Teensy 3.6 SD Card Problems with external power

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RASTA_SUG

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Hello Folks,
I run into some problems whenn using my Teensy 3.6 with external power.
I'm trying to run a project with a GPS shield, IMU and pressure Sensor. All data shall be saved on a MicroSD Card on the built in card slot. Everything works fine when I power the Teensy over USB but when I try to power the microcontroller externally the controller is not able to open the SD card for writing and reading.
As a power source I'm using two 1.5 Mono D cells with a 5V voltage step up regulator (Pololu U3V12F5).
If I'm giving the setup power over the USB cable first and then pull on the external power and removing the USB cable it works too but I don't allways want to start the system over USB and then switching to external.

After googling for a while I cannot find any suggestions for troubleshooting the explained problem.
Has anyone of you any suggestions?

thanks in advance
Louis

I will add a schematic of the project. Unbenannt.PNG
 
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Note in your schematic, you connect the ground wire from the power & converter to the AGND pin (between VIN and 3.3v on the right side if the USB connector is facing up). On the Teensy 3.2, 3.5, and 3.6 that pin is the analog ground pin, that has extra filtering for analog inputs. While often times you can use that pin as a ground, for digital inputs, etc. you should probably use one of the normal ground pins. There are several ground pins you can use:

  • The first pin on the left side (next to pin 0);
  • The pin on the right side between pin 13 and A22;
  • The middle pin in the row of pins in front of the micro-SD card; (and)
  • The two ground pins on the inner row of 5 pins below the DP/DM/5v pins.

On the Teensy LC, 4.0, and 4.1 you could use that pin, since those boards do not have a separate analog ground.

Without cutting the solder pad between VUSB and VIN, you should be careful to only have one power source (either USB or external).
 
MichaelMeissner said:
Note in your schematic, you connect the ground wire from the power & converter to the AGND pin (between VIN and 3.3v on the right side if the USB connector is facing up). On the Teensy 3.2, 3.5, and 3.6 that pin is the analog ground pin, that has extra filtering for analog inputs. While often times you can use that pin as a ground, for digital inputs, etc. you should probably use one of the normal ground pins. There are several ground pins you can use:

  • The first pin on the left side (next to pin 0);
  • The pin on the right side between pin 13 and A22;
  • The middle pin in the row of pins in front of the micro-SD card; (and)
  • The two ground pins on the inner row of 5 pins below the DP/DM/5v pins.

On the Teensy LC, 4.0, and 4.1 you could use that pin, since those boards do not have a separate analog ground.

Without cutting the solder pad between VUSB and VIN, you should be careful to only have one power source (either USB or external).
Click to expand...

Hello Michael,
thanks for the advise! :)
I've changed it but the problem still remains :(
 
Ok after various tries with different Teensys and SD-cards it turned out that the SD card was in some way corrupted. I tried another one and everything works perfect.
But its still confusing to me bc the corrupt SD is working when the Teensy is powerd via USB or when its pluged in directly to PC :confused:
Nevertheless I'll just change the SD to a new one and will have a close eye on the behaviour ;)

cheers
Louis
 
It looks like you have a CR2032 battery on the 3v3 circuit? It guess you actually want to have that on the Vbat pin.

Or is this ment to be a big capacitor? I know upon writing on these sd cards they can draw a lot of current for a very short tome. It is nice to have like a 470uF capacitor over the 3V3/GND of the Teensy.
 
Yes I already saw this one too :D I’ve changed that to Vbat 🙈
Would it be good to put a capacitor between the step up regulator and VIN?
 
And if the CR2032 would worked like a capacitor shouldn’t that be aware of the current spikes?
But as I said the system is working quite stable with another SD card.

PS the only thing that gets my head off is the f****** GPS Module:D but I think that’s quite common ;)
 
These step-up modules generally are noisemakers.
It is always a good idea to consider and extra capacitor. I do like to use RC filters so a few ohms resistor followed with a big capacitor, that will create a little voltage drop but gets rid of a lot of noise.
 
Ok thanks for the advice. I’ll definitely consider this in the next revision ;)
What values for resistor an cap would you suggest? Like 10 Ohm and 470 uF?
 
These are nice values to start with.
It kind off depends on the current drawn, and the space that is available.

If too much voltage drops over the resistor lower the value and of possible increase the cap. If you have enough space to use 1000uF just use that. It won't hurt to use higher vales here. Use a low esr capacitor!

This actually creates a low pass filter, not as sharp as an LC filter but helps a lot on your powersupply noise. The values are not that critical here.
 
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