With my Raspberry Pi camera project, it’s vital that the Pi is portable and untethered to mains electricity.
So, I researched various ways of powering the Pi from battery. This ranged from using LiPo batteries, through AA batteries and finally settling on a USB mobile phone battery pack. I searched for a while and finally found a 20000mah pack on eBay. This was from China and, despite waiting almost a month, never arrived. So, I then went for a UK-based supplier (which is what I should’ve done in the first place) and chose this one:
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It’s a 7800mAh pack from a company called Floureon. It has two 2A/5V USB outputs and a 1A/5V micro USB output.
After charging it yesterday, I tried it out. I set up the Pi in my typical configuration – Model B, 512 Pi with a WiFi dongle pulling max. 500mA and the official camera module. I then set up a cron (scheduled) job to take a photograph every minute and archive the images with timestamped. That way, I could tell how long the battery lasted by looking at the timestamps. I should say at this point that the micro USB output from the pack didn’t work. Not sure if I’m using it quite as it was intended. But, using the normal USB port works, so I’m happy.
The battery lasted a whopping 12.5 hours, which I reckon is quite good for something which is a similar size to the Pi (when the Pi is in a case) and was quite reasonable at £20.
Now to get my push-to-take-a-photo button working!
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Assuming the 7800mAh battery capacity spec is accurate, at 12.5 hours runtime you have a 624 mA system load, which seems about right.
I guess a Model A would use less current, but note, I discovered at least the Ralink WiFi adaptors are not stable on the Model A unless you turn off the wifi power-management function (has to do with quirky R-Pi USB driver), for details see: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=40474#p330853
Here are some of my measurements of current consumed by Ralink wifi adaptors (it goes up with the data rate, as you might expect)
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=11309#p125003
Thank you 🙂 I did wonder what the actual load was 🙂
Strange to hear about the Wifi having problems with the model A… you’d have thought they’d work the same as they’re basically the same board, but I guess we’ll call that a ‘feature’.
“I should say at this point that the micro USB output from the pack didn’t work. Not sure if I’m using it quite as it was intended.”
I’m going to assume that it isn’t an output, but a charging port to recharge the battery pack itself.
Nope, it’s supposed to be an output.
See picture here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pink-FLOUREON-7800mAh-USB-External-Battery-charger-BLACKBERRY-CURVE-9360-/190691362499
Hello,
for a few days a think about UPS to Rpi, so i have an idea to next experiment.
Could you check if Rpi works plugged into the battery pack, while battery pack will be still connected to charger, and what happens if you unplugged charger. Rpi reboot or not? and i’m curious how will be the capacity of the battery pack.
Sorry for my english
Battery pack does not charge when plugged into the Pi. It cannot be used as a UPS. I am waiting for a review product of a UPS that uses a LIPO battery and will blog about it when I get it.
Hi,
I bought some kind of chinese Power Bank, it is some kind of noname, looks like this:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JtWpZfKGp_0/U … oard02.jpg
1A in, 1A out, 5V, 3000mah.
It was shop opening and occasional price was around 6 euro.
I powered it by small 1.2A mini usb phone charger.
After i charged it to 75% i connect raspberry to output without disconnection of charging, nothing has happened, then i discover litle button, when I press it Rpi booted up. It works stabil since one week. When I unplugged charger, Rpi still working, when i plugged charger back it start charge battery, and again Rpi didn’t feel any interruption, works stabil all the time.
There is only one question, how long batery will works in such configuration?
I plan to measure how long it will works only on full charged battery and repeat the test every month to see how it change battery capacity.
I will report results.
Sorry if i make some mistakes in english but it is not my native language, if something is not clear please ask.
Hi There:
I’m trying to do the same thing. I’ve got a 10,000mAh one and a 7000mAh one, different makes. the issue I have is that they provide power for maybe 30 seconds and then decide “oh, the pi is charged” and then shut off the juice. Is there a way around that?
I’m not sure there’s anything you can do about that. It would mean opening the battery up (not recommended) and changing something to mean that the detector doesn’t work. Sorry I can’t help 🙁