On 29/01/2018 12:07, Daniel James wrote:
> In article , James Harris wrote:
>> I was looking for a basic UPS which would allow a Pi to keep
>> running for a few minutes if power were lost or while the Pi
>> was being transferred from one mains socket to another. Ideally,
>> it would tell the OS to shut down, if necessary, and would
>> restart the machine when the mains came back online.
>>
>> Well, I came across the following one which looks excellent. It
>> seems to do all I wanted and the battery can be upgraded to give
>> longer life.
>>
>> https://www.modmypi.com/raspberry-pi/power-1051/ups-boards-1051/
>> ups-pico
>
> Interesting. That's quite a full-featured solution -- it does rather more
> than others I've seen (it has a built-in RTC, for example).
>
>> Any opinions on it? And as it is out of stock at the moment, would you
>> recommend any similar UPS?
>
> I've never played with one, so I can't comment beyond saying that it
> seems to be a decently well thought-out piece of kit.
>
> As for alternatives ... I've previously mentioned here the Adafruit
> Powerboost 1000C (not to be confused with the Powerboost 1000 (without
> the C) which is just a battery charger) and I've recently discovered the
> products from Alchemy Power (such as the Pi-Z UpTime for the Pi Zero).
>
> I haven't actually played with the Alchemy products, yet, but I do have a
> Powerboost board and a suitable LiPo battery. That's well put together
> (like most Adafruit stuff) and it seems to work very nicely but I haven't
> yet satisfied myself that the board can't kill the battery by continuing
> to draw a little power for itself after it has shut down the Pi (or
> whatever). It may be fine, but I have seen one or two reports of people
> who've experienced dead batteries with this board. It may be that all
> that's needed is a battery with internal protection (and I need to check
> whether mine has, they are available both with and without).
>
> You'll find both of these (in the UK, at least) at Pimoroni or one of the
> other usual suspects.

As it happens, I ordered a PIco earlier today. Delivery not expected for
a month or so yet as they are due stock toward the end of Feb.

I saw a report that battery life fades after some period of use (a year
or two). I decided to take the chance as the battery can be replaced.

Incidentally, I bought from CPC as they take back orders.

Aside from the many extras it provides I love the fact that the PIco,
battery and Pi can all fit in the same case. Sounds very neat. Will see
how it works out in practice.


--
James Harris

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