Can You Power Your Pi With A Power Bank Instead Of A UPS? I Tried The Shargeek Storm 2

Рет қаралды 38,202

Күн бұрын

In this video, we're going to be answering a question that has come up quite a lot in videos where I’ve used a small purpose-built UPS to power a Raspberry Pi - Can you just use a Power Bank instead? I tested the Shargeek Storm 2 to find out whether a power bank can power a Raspberry Pi.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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Visit my blog for the write-up - www.the-diy-life.com/can-you-...
PURCHASE LINKS
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Shargeek Storm 2 (Web Store) - bit.ly/3Bvxaj5
Shargeek Storm 2 (Amazon) - amzn.to/4346BgD
Alternate Power Banks - amzn.to/3IilXGr
Pi Sugar 3 Plus UPS - amzn.to/3IgVUzn
Pi UPS - amzn.to/454ExM5
Portable Monitor - amzn.to/3W8Aaf0
Tool & Equipment Used:
USB Power Tester - amzn.to/3MwYsfg
Electric Screwdriver - amzn.to/3aOeDVa
TS100 Soldering Iron - amzn.to/3vw6MDo
Some of the above parts are affiliate links. By purchasing products through the above links, you’ll be supporting this channel, at no additional cost to you.
CHAPTERS
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0:00 UPS' Used Previously
1:32 Power Banks To Test
3:12 Testing The Cheap Power Bank
4:32 Testing The Storm 2
6:32 Powering My Turing Pi 2
7:43 UPS vs Power Bank
10:17 Final Thoughts
If you've got any ideas for Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or other Electronics projects or tutorials you'd like to see, let me know in the comments section.

Пікірлер: 61

@aardwolf21 Жыл бұрын

Pity the fact that many power banks pass through line power if it's available, then take a short time to switch to battery power once the main input is lost was missed in this video, as this effectively removes, and reapplies power to the pi if the mains goes off, at best causing a reboot, at worst bricking the storage. FInding a bank that doesn't do this is the trick, and the reason to go with a UPS.

@RhavoX 6 ай бұрын

Yeah and this guy didn't test for that scenario of course... Ehhhhh.

@abcedariumu8033 4 ай бұрын

Can't this be avoided by simply connecting the output of your powerbank board to an additional safety circuit? As far as I know, designing it is possible.

@davidl6566 Ай бұрын

Depending on the pi's power draw, even a capacitor in parallel might do the job if it doesn't need to be the size of a car audio cap

@rickmoskovits1144 7 ай бұрын

An excellent video on the difference between UPS and power banks . I am currently using a sunfounder UPS but definitely want a power bank. Thanks again

@late_nights Жыл бұрын

Awesome content man. You deserve more subs

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Thank you for the support!

@LocalGhost_8080 3 ай бұрын

this is what I was looking for

@Raymond_Petit 8 ай бұрын

I don't have a Raspberry Pi but I am running and HP Elitedesk G4 mini desktop on an Omars power bank I bought some years back. It has one usb C pd, two usb A, and a regular wall plug which is what I'm using. It's a bit messy but the power bank and computer are both small enough to carry around, I eventually plan to use it just like a laptop. I have a Wimaxit small monitor connected to it and just need to get my hands on a small portable usb folding keyboard if I can find one. I upgraded the Elitedesk to over 1 gig of storage and 32 gigs of ram. The thing I don't know is how long I can run this setup before draining the power bank while out and about. So far it looks like I'll get far more time than any laptop I've ever owned!

@elipeters5658 24 күн бұрын

Great vid. Beyond the scope of this anyone can protect their raspberry pi's os by locking it within program and no need for a ups. A ups use case is critical monitoring or if you werent able to protect the os.

@MechnoSferatu Жыл бұрын

I had a UPS that took 18650s that, when it failed, rude-booted my pi over and over again until the microsd card was toast. Your purpose built ones look a lot better than the one i was using.

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

I've had a pretty good experience with the Pi Sugar 3 Plus. I've seen quite a few complaints about reliability on the Geekworm one although there are a number of versions and revisions of this board so it's difficult to tell which are good and which are bad.

@MrPir84free 11 ай бұрын

Many power banks have passthru charging; a feature that allows the device ( PI ) and the battery bank to both receive power at the same time. There are two transitions to be concerned about however; what happens when power to the power bank is removed and what happens when power is re-appplied . Most power banks that support pass thru charging still don't handle that transition nicely which will cause a reboot/power drop on the load side ( PI in this case ). Many wi-fi cameras are similar in that the device is USB powered and every power bank I've tested fails on one of the two transitions. IN fact this is how I "learned" about these two transitions... Even some "UPS" devices built for things like the PI fail the real UPS test ( how it handles the transitions ) .

@MichaelKlements 11 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing your experience with power banks. A UPS that fails these transitions is effectively useless, it's no longer an "uninterruptible" power supply.

@StankoRago 7 ай бұрын

Do you know any powerbank that doesnt do that? Im facing same problem when pluging/unpluging power imput to battery pi restarts. Thank you

@disasterincarnate Жыл бұрын

the biggest difference imho is that power banks you typically cant or shouldnt draw power from it while also trying to charge at the same time.

@sspence65 Жыл бұрын

Depends on the power bank. Mine specifically says you can.

@ZED-PV 8 ай бұрын

This specific power bank says it can without an issue.

@realcartoongirl 8 ай бұрын

some power bank can stupid

@mattspazmatic 6 ай бұрын

@@sspence65Which kind do you have? I do have a lot of gear to run at once, so maybe I shouldn't return the expensive UPS I just got, but it would be rad to run my grooveboxes (edm instruments) anywhere I'd like off a power bank and ripcord.

@Ratuono 3 ай бұрын

@@sspence65which one do you have? I need it pls

@herauthon Жыл бұрын

i got a PB with usb, usb-c usb-mc 20kmA i think it will work.. but does it work for 1 hour ? Does have passthrough

@iblackfeathers Жыл бұрын

one thing not mentioned in the video is pass through. with that you can run the pi with some form of mains power or even a powerbank with sufficient power, but then have a way to switch to battery power when that primary power source is cut off. then, when the secondary power source is reaching its limit, have an automated way to shutdown. there are some options out there from talentcell, which have passthrough capability to certain pisugar models or even a diy solution. the shargeek powerbank is too high end for thus. i use mine for various needs but cannot commit it to a pi. one issue brought up in the kickstarter was that the batteries are not removeable, so you cannot replace it since it is a sealed case. they were about to go with panasonic batteries but the electronics shortage had them switch to samsungs, but that’s heading off-topic… then there’s the higher power requirements of rpi 4. if you do not need a 4, earlier models have lower power consumption demands which leads to wider options of power options, and may be better suited for the job.

@sumantkhalate Жыл бұрын

Even if it supports pass through the power on the output will power cycle for a few milliseconds causing the pi to restart. This is the biggest problem I faced while using a power bank (Mi make). But again it is a power bank, not a UPS. So I won't blame it. It's best to use purpose-built UPS when you have primary power and you want it to run off batteries in case of primary power failure. if you are only concerned about running it off battery for as long as the battery lasts in a remote location, a power bank should get the job done.

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

@iblackfeathers thanks for sharing your thoughts. Pass through is an option on some power banks but I'd still go with a UPS for the battery protection, communicaiton with the Pi and safe shutdown capabilties. If you're using pass through then you're effectively using the power bank as a UPS anyway. I didn't think to try opening the Storm 2 up to see if the batteries can be replaced but I did notice that there were screws on the end cap, so I just assumed that this was an option. Not being able to replace the batteries would be a pretty poor design decision if that is the case but it looks to me like it would be possible. Yes, most earlier Pi models have lower power requirements than the Pi 4 so they'd be better for battery powered applications.

@jamess1787 Жыл бұрын

One thing most "raspberry pi ups's" don't have is the ability to turn off the pi _fully_. So when power is restored: your pi is just hung in "halt" state. Super annoying. I think the pi sugar (and the original one) is the only one that has this feature, the rest of them are just junk. Meant for short term power or someone to come unplug the cable or press a button. I want unattended, that's the whole purpose of UPS. 😅

@mortenmoulder Жыл бұрын

I have a ~80 kWh UPS connected to one of my Pis. The UPS also has four wheels, almost 500 horsepower, and can record dashcam footage to the Pi, to which the Pi then uploads to my NAS when the UPS gets home. Can recommend. For real though, I wish more powerbanks allowed passthrough, because that's an awesome feature.

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

Haha, sounds like you're getting good use out of your Pi!

@highvisibilityraincoat Ай бұрын

Got a guide for this? I've always been interested in redundancy for my dashcam.

@mortenmoulder Ай бұрын

@@highvisibilityraincoat TeslaUSB :)

@drofnasw 4 ай бұрын

Can you provide a link to the cable that appears to feature a DC barrel connector on both ends, as shown in your video? I’d prefer a cable with a DC barrel connector on one end and USB plug on the other end - can you recommend one? Sincere thanks!

@MichaelKlements 3 ай бұрын

I made this one up myself but you can buy them on eBay, just search for a DC 5.5mm male to male extension

@Darkk6969 9 ай бұрын

I too have the Turing Pi 2. Where did you get that case as it looks awesome!

@MichaelKlements 9 ай бұрын

Thank you, I made the case for it - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b7KclsuolprHdHU.html

@BlueSun4886 7 ай бұрын

I've been using PiSugar 3 Plus's to power several Raspberry Pi 4's (5V3A IIRC) for portable use. I just received two Pi 5s & wonder what battery rig I can get to put out 5V - 5W as the PiSugar, though it will work on a Pi 5, is a bit underpowered & you can't overclock or run at full power with an SSD. Any suggestions. The plugin chargers I have for the Pi 5s are 27W wall-warts rated at 5.1V5A. Any suggestions for a small-as-possible portable power supply that will fully power the Pi 5? BTW, the PiSugar 2 1200 mAh is great with a Pi Zero W & a Waveshare 2.3 inch e-Paper hat if you want to build your own tamagotchi for a third of the price people are selling pre-assembled ones. It takes just minutes to assemble. It's basically plug&play.

@ShortBusRejectz 4 ай бұрын

Same question

@israelvg9342 3 ай бұрын

Did you find any solution?

@lutalia2558 2 ай бұрын

Really good video, but what about the pi 5 did it work the same way ?

@MichaelKlements 2 ай бұрын

This will work for the Pi 5 as well but you won't be able to power external PCIe connected devices through the Pi as well since this can't provide 5A through the USB type C port.

@lutalia2558 2 ай бұрын

@@MichaelKlements Well this is at the same time a good news and a bad news I’ve planned to build a travel kit with a pi 5 and the argon one nvme storage but if the power delivery provide less than 5A, yeah it make sense that will not working, in my mind i’ve think to use a power bank from ugreen with a capacity of 100w or 140w that can also provide charging for my mac but there is a possibility that create an overload on the pi side

@MichaelKlements 2 ай бұрын

Depending on the NVMe hat (I'm not sure about the Argon one), they usually have a direct power input on the hat as well so you might be able to power the Pi and the Hat separately but from the same power bank.

@RhavoX 6 ай бұрын

You do know that a UPS also is able to be charged while running the power to the PI right? So why didn't you check that scenario?

@juanpaul6141 10 ай бұрын

How about combining a (big)pb w pass through and a ups ?

@opcionvital2335 Жыл бұрын

Can the adapter be used to power my internet provider's modem?

@MichaelKlements Жыл бұрын

You can get 12V inline UPS modules specifically made for modems - something similar to thiswww.wagneronline.com.au/12v-40wh-dc-in-line-mini-ups/power-solutions/data-computer/ups1238-101085/1007503/pd/

@777sukumar 28 күн бұрын

I am trying to create a Camera Board with Raspberry pi 5. The components connected to my Raspberry pi 5 are camera and Battery. I need to record videos. Is there any power banks that I can use to record videos at least for 5 days. Your help or suggestions are very helpful please

@MichaelKlements 28 күн бұрын

Raspberry Pi 5's are not really designed for portable battery powered projects, they're not efficient enough. Without knowing too much about the project and camera being used, they use around 4-5W in a typical project, so you'd need a battery of at least 500Wh - which is quite big. That's five times bigger than the Storm 2, which is already a large power bank.

@777sukumar 25 күн бұрын

@@MichaelKlements Thank you so much for providing information. That helps to move forward. But Can you suggest any other boards I can use to record videos for this much long(5 days) with portable battery please.

@muhammadm1237 2 ай бұрын

What is the enclosure of pi? Can you give some details ?

@MichaelKlements 2 ай бұрын

They're my own enclosures that I designed and 3D printed, you can get them from my Etsy store - www.etsy.com/au/shop/TheDIYLifeCo

@fcf8269 Ай бұрын

Would have loved to hear about power banks more, instead of that product you got to test

@sspence65 Жыл бұрын

Been using a power bank for my pi for several years.

@AKMultiFit 8 ай бұрын

Which one? How does it do when power cuts?

@lvill3633 11 ай бұрын

Still prefer UPS

@Mark-et1pz 3 ай бұрын

Power bank -> UPS -> Pi

@darah.k3221 3 ай бұрын

You used a bad quality cable for the cheap power bank

@JoTheVeteran 2 ай бұрын

So besides the continuously shameless advertisement for that power.. bank? Looks more like power supply to me, it looks I can use my ancient powerbank, or a dirt cheap one I can buy for $10 to power my pi, and the pi won't blow up or something. Good to know.

@nagyandras8857 3 ай бұрын

but... why.... buy a damned 6v lead acid battery, allright ? then find a 5v regulator with low dropout voltage, allright ? now, you allso want a decently smart battery charger. it does certainly not have to be super smart, just be able to switch to a float voltage once the battery is charged. basicly any shite 6v "msart" charger will do just fine. hook it all up. and then you got your self covered.

@chinesemusic8019 9 ай бұрын

for $50 why not just get a real UPS?

@MichaelKlements 9 ай бұрын

Because a Pi is designed as a low power DC device. A traditional UPS uses significanlty more power because it converts AC to DC to charge the battery, then DC to AC at it's outlet and then you plug in an adaptor to convert the AC back to DC again. These DC UPS's sit on the DC side so they are much more power efficient.