Battery Powered Raspberry Pi

by jeff.cartwright.562

1.9K93

Intro: Battery Powered Raspberry Pi

Here is a very easy way to use a battery to power a Raspberry Pi.

The instructable assumes the Raspberry Pi is configured and running.

STEP 1: Gather Parts

Get parts and tools (prices in USD):

    • Working Raspberry Pi
    • Ultra-Slim Cell Phone Portable Charger Li-Polymer Battery Power Bank by Fast Track Energy - Model U35 10000 mAh from Amazon $21.89
    • StarTech.com 6 Inch Micro USB Cable - A to Micro B (UUSBHAUB6 Inch) from Amazon $3.75

    STEP 2: Put It All Together

    Charge the battery pack

    Shutdown raspberry pi and unplug from wall outlet

    Plug USB to microUSB into battery pack and into Raspberry Pi

    The Raspberry Pi should run for 8-10 hours

    3 Comments

    jeff.cartwright.562 8 years ago

    The Raspberry Pi draws 1A or 1,000 mA.

    10,000mAh / 1,000mA = 10 hours

    I consistently get a little over 8 hours of battery life on the geiger counter.

    JackB64 8 years ago

    basic info,i use tp-link 5.0v DC and 10400mah battery packs and would love to get 8-10 hrs

    jeff.cartwright.562 8 years ago

    I haven't done formal measurements on battery packs. The comment in the instructable is purely anecdotal. Here is my anecdote:

    The pack is new and was first charged the night before I used it. I built a geiger counter, which includes a Raspberry Pi 2 (5v, 1A), Mighty Ohm Geiger Counter (3.3v), Panda Wifi adapter, and 2.8in PiTFT display, and it ran from about 7:30am until about 4:30pm when my ssh connection dropped, and I noticed the geiger counter had stopped and the battery needed to be recharged.

    I wasn't using the device heavily, I was only writing a couple of scripts to record and display data. Also, downloaded minimum, python3 and gnuplot. The geiger counter was running the whole time, and the display has a 30 minute sleep interval.