I have a Beagleboard rev. B4, which runs on the Angstrom console
image 2.6.29. The temperature of the TWL4030 becomes quite high (I
think about 50-60 C). It will not burn my fingertip, but it's feels
quite unpleasant. Nothing is connected to the BB, except the OTG USB
pin 4 and 5 are soldered together to make the OTG host by default.
Eevrything on the BB works fine. Since I have no reference, maybe
anyone can tell me the TWL4030 temperature is normal or not. The BB
surges about 400 mA.
You have a VERY old version of the board. The TWL4030 did run a little warm on that version, mainly due to the UBoot code. I suggest you upgrade to a newer version. The TWL4030 is no longer used on the Beagle. Instead the TPS65950 is used which is a much improved version over the TWL4030. On the current revsions of the Beagle, the PMIC doesn’t even break a sweat.
The board will operate fine dwespit this higher temperature level.
Indeed it's a bit of an old board, and it has not been used for quit
some time due to lack of time.
You mentioned a recent Uboot could help to make the temp level
decrease a bit, but I already use a recent Uboot (U-boot 2009.08, Oct.
20 2009).
Can you give me the reason the TWL4030 gets medium hot and what part
of the Uboot code is responsible for this ?
There are a few differences in the TWL4030 that may impact what features work and which ones don’t. As I said, the TPS65950 is a newer and lower power part. We used to see the TWL4030 run around 40 degrees C.
It has to do with turning things off in the TWL4030 that you do not use and turning things off in the OMAP3530 that you do not use. Including things like the DSP, lowering the frequency, etc. The B4 also has the first version of the OMAP3530. There have been several follow on versions that run a lot better.
Even though it runs a little warm, it shouldn’t be causing any issues in operation.