No power supplied through USB connector?

Hello!

The Getting Started Guide v1.0.2 suggests on page 7 under “Connecting the USB interface”, that the board would be supplied with power when connected via the USB connector (J5). However, my board does not turn on (LEDs D9 and D10 are not lighting up) when connected only through USB. Only when I connect an additional 7V power supply to the power jack (J7), does the board turn on (D9 and D10 are lighting up, as well as D6). Only in this state, I also find a FTDI USB Serial Device converter (FT2232H) being connected to my (Linux) PC – when only connected via USB, my computer does not detect such device.

Is this expected? I.e. is the Getting Started Guide wrong about the possibility of supplying power through the USB connector? Or is my board broken?

The board should work when powered just by USB, at least for the default application. What kind of USB supply are you using? (Laptop, Wall wart, etc)? If computer, does it issue any warnings about excessive power draw?

Hi Megan!

I tried both: Two “phone chargers” and my Linux 4.14.8 laptop. The latter did not report anything at all in dmesg, when I connected the HiFive1, unless I also connected the additional power jack. When I connect that, I see:

[Mon Dec 25 06:10:54 2017] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[Mon Dec 25 06:10:55 2017] ftdi_sio 1-1:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[Mon Dec 25 06:10:55 2017] usb 1-1: Detected FT2232H
[Mon Dec 25 06:10:55 2017] usb 1-1: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[Mon Dec 25 06:10:55 2017] ftdi_sio 1-1:1.1: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[Mon Dec 25 06:10:55 2017] usb 1-1: Detected FT2232H
[Mon Dec 25 06:10:55 2017] usb 1-1: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB1

I just received the HiFive1 and did not yet flash / load any custom program onto it. I.e. it is currently in “factory defaults” configuration.

The board is revision A01, just as the one described in the electrical schematics dated 2016-12-19.

Unfortunately, it sounds like there could be a problem with your board that slipped past QC testing. If you reach out to CrowdSupply they can help you with a replacement.