‘Pi Power’ Handles Power Management & Control for Portable Pi Projects #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi
Awesome build and write-up by Craic Computing here on GitHub detailing some effective power management solutions for portable Raspberry Pi projects, demonstrated using a Raspberry Pi Zero. Bullet points below sum up the incentives for integrating ‘Pi Power’ within your designs. (Thanks to Robert Jones for sending this in.)
The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, single board computer with reasonable performance and relatively low power consumption, typically a version of the Linux operating system, often Raspbian.
The Pi family of boards have turned out to be very useful machines for standalone and/or portable projects such as remote environment monitoring, cameras, etc.
But to be truly portable, a system needs to include a power source and a way to control that power – such as a rechargeable battery, a charger, an on/off switch and some way to monitor battery status.
What I want is something equivalent to the way my iPhone works
To power it up from a cold state, press a button for a few seconds
To power it off, press the same button for a few seconds
Indicate how much power remains in the battery
Provide an alert when that is running really low
Shut down safely without any data corruption if the battery does run out
To recharge the battery, just plug in a cable from a USB charger
This project provides one approach to reaching this goal, building on the LiPoPi project from Daniel Bull.
Pi Power has been tested successfully on these boards:
Raspberry Pi 2 Model B V1.1 (2014)
Raspberry Pi Zero v1.2 (2015)
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B V1.2 (2015) – using the Pi 3 modification shown above
Please take a look at the Wiki for more background on battery charging, power usage by the Pi etc.
PowerBoost 1000 Charger – Rechargeable 5V Lipo USB Boost @ 1A – 1000C: PowerBoost 1000C is the perfect power supply for your portable project! With a built-in load-sharing battery charger circuit, you’ll be able to keep your power-hungry project running even while recharging the battery! This little DC/DC boost converter module can be powered by any 3.7V LiIon/LiPoly battery, and convert the battery output to 5.2V DC for running your 5V projects. Read more.
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Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: CircuitPython Comes to the ESP32-P4, Emulating Arm on RISC-V, and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
