A smaller-sized rechargeable battery pack for your Raspberry Pi or Raspberry Pi B+ (or Arduino, or Propeller, or anything else that works with 5V!). This pack is intended for providing power to an iPhone, cell phone, tablet, etc but we found it does a really good job of powering other miniature computers and micro-controllers. If you want more power we have a 4400mAh version and if you want even more power we have a 10,000mAh power pack with two USB ports that can provide up to 2A! We tested it with an iPhone 5 & 5s so we know it will charge those models. It can charge a device like an iPad but it will only do so at 1A rate, so its a little slow.
Inside is a 2200mAh lithium ion battery, a charging circuit (you charge it via the USB cable attached), and a boost converters that provides 5VDC up to 1 Amp via a USB A port. The 1 Amp output is key for when you want to power the Pi, wifi adapters, maybe even small displays.
The charging circuit will draw 500mA from a 5V supply (plug a microUSB connector into the pack and then to a computer or wall adapter). You can charge and power something at the same time but there’s ~80% efficiency loss on both ends so if you charge it at 1A and draw 1A at the same time, the battery pack will eventually go empty. However, if you’re powering something thats 500mA or less, you can keep it topped up no problem. Also, when you start and stop charging the pack, it will flicker the output, this can cause a ‘power sensitive’ device like the Pi or an iPhone to reset on the power supply. If using it with a low current load, say under 100mA, the pack may ‘fall asleep’ – you can use this circuit to keep the pack awake.
Comes with the battery pack and a micro-B cable that you can use for charging the pack or powering a device with a micro B port.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
