Have you connected a backup power supply to your HA Raspberry Pi?

I use the same UPS to power my Raspberry Pi. The built-in USB ports do not provide enough power to a Pi, so you will need to use your 2.5A power supply.

I bought it because the house I was living in would experience power issues that would knock my Pi offline, every few weeks or so. I’ve been running this UPS for about three weeks and Home Assistant remains online, so that’s a good sign.

It goes on sale at Newegg for $20 sometimes. I wouldn’t pay any more for that since it can’t connect any 3-prong cables.

I wonder if powerbanks is really the way to go. My fear was that larger UPS consume a lot of energy but from what I have been reading, it’s in the 5W range so nothing to worry about. Saw this https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0006V74KM/?coliid=I1M5VIYR9U0CUK&colid=1V7AU6LB78JNR&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it on Amazon which is used by many for the NAS, so it can’t be bad for an RPi with HA.

Hard to find power bank rated above 2ish Amps. Even harder to find one with power pass-through when mains supply power. And this is not even enough: you’ll have to make sure that the pass-through is fluent and output to pi is up to 2.5A constantly during switching from battery to mains and vice versa.

And you probably kill power bank battery really fast if the unit is constantly connected to mains and trickle charging.

More I read my answer, more it looks like that kind of device is already invented, and tried &tested in the field all around the world: UPS.

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More I read my answer, more it looks like that kind of device is already invented, and tried &tested in the field all around the world: UPS.

I agree. Just ordered an APC BX 700VA…

I actually have two of these (sorry for the german Link) power banks. One for the Pi HASS is running on, and another where I have the HomeMatic gateway (that’s like a Hue bridge for the devices I use) and the switch connected to. Of the 3 Ports the power bank has only one is really uninterrupted when the power goes down. So I have the switch connected to the other because the few seconds of packet loss causes less trouble than either the Pi or the gateway rebooting.
With 20.000mh the devices also have plenty of time to react on the outage. And for 25€ it’s really cheap. Plus: I don’t have a lot of space where the hardware is located, and the power bank is really slim.

I do feel though a finished product specifically for this usecase would be great. Like a small UPS with just 8 USB-ports where ideally you can also switch them from 3 to 5 to 7 to 9 to 12 volts. That way it could also easily power other DIY devices. For the switch I currently have to use an USB-adapter cable that converts 5 to 9V.

This is an interesting thread as I was just writing a blog entry about this recently when a sudden power outage occurred and my RPi kept on going without a hitch

My setup is a Cyberpower CP750SWLT JP (Japan version) with a bunch of stuff plugged in.
At first since I had it I plugged in the RPi with Hassio. But since suffering corrupt SD cards upon reboot I put it on the UPS and it’s been great since.

more in-depth entry here

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I use one of these to power my:
Odroid C2+ running Ubuntu 18.04 and HASS
D-Link NAS with 2 sata 3.5" disks
tplink 5 port managed Gige switch
Cisco rv325 router
AT&T Fiber router.

I get just under 2 hours but that was with my nas drives constantly spinning. I can since enable power save so I’ll see next time we have an outage. We’re about due for a good one, lol.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FWAZEIU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also have one of these powering the ethernet to fiber media converter in the Garage. I have no idea how long it will run but it outlasts my network core.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KH07WRC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I’m very happy with a Romoss Power Bank I got cheap off eBay. It maintain power output during a powerloss unlike others. I think it only supplies 2,1A, but that’s more than enough in most cases. The current draw is rarely above 1 amp. I’ve been running this on a Pi 2 without any issues for 1,5 yrs now.

A little late but came across this just now.
Looks like an inexpensive way to provide battery backup provided it charges and provides power at the same time. Which looks probable.

A more expensive version but specifically says ups.

I have no Rpi but is the output cirremt not very low?

Cheap & lithium batteries, you’d better to have good fire insurance policy and automatic off-site backups configured.

Those both seem not to have any structural disengage mechanism in case of swollen lithium.

Personally I would not trust even fully EU certified & inspected power bank running 24/7 mostly unsupervised but I rather avoid small-probability risks than possibly face consiquences if I get really unlucky…

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I know this is an old thread, but I just finished designing/installing a hassio pi alarm box that has a 12V lead acid backup. The circuit is very simple… a 9-40Vdc switching 5V 10A supply gets power from either a) a 14Vdv 3A mains powered brick (intended for Samsung monitors) or b) a 12V lead acid battery (9Ahr). The 2 source positive rails each pass through a 1n5822 diode… wired such that the higher voltage is the one supplying current (the 14V brick when mains is on, and the 13.6V max battery if mains shuts off). The battery is continuously maintained by a Battery Tender brand charger. So it stays topped off all the time and recharges itself after a power outage.

The biggest advantage of this setup is the 12Vdc siren for the alarm also remains available during an outage. Also, the 12V 9Ah is enough to last a long time (several days in case a burglar tries to cut my mains feed). Also, lead acid backup is of course a heavily tested and widely accepted safe method… vs the firebomb lithiums. The setup was also fairly cheap for what it is and easy to assemble… battery tender was the most expensive part.

This system fit nicely in a 12x12x4" lockable box, which plugs into a larger 16Ah sinewave ups (which was already there for other network gear and a small camera server). The only wire I had to protect with conduit is the siren wire (2" of conduit leading to cieling)… the other wires could be cut and the alarm will still remain active.

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this thing looks like it would be awesome for providing continuous USB power on AC or during an outage. Not sure if it sustains continuous power so going to test and will post my results: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K702S66/

I would also like a powerbank, and are considering yours. But it says its only 2.0A output. Doesn’t Pi3 or later need 2.5A

That’s true. It worked well with older raspberries. The new ones get throttled with the power bank. So currently I’m directly attached to the power suply. Didn’t find a compact alternative yet. The problem is to find a power bank that doesn’t interrupt when the main power goes down. That’s nothing that’s usually part of the specifications.

I built a 12V usv/usp to power all my network infrastructure for 2-3h. This helps in case of power surges and short outages and keeps my router, switches, security system, access points and raspberry running.
There is a 3s6p 18650 battery pack inside, that’s powered by a 4A 12V power supply and then there are boost/buck converters that make 5, 12, and 48V for all devices from the supply/battery voltage.

You can see 2x48V, 5x12V and one double USB connector on the pictures.

This is what the systems looks like. In case anyone is interested i can upload the stuff to my thingiverse account.

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Very tidy.

Does it have any ‘smarts’ - can ha get info on charge state etc?

Not at present state, but it’s not important for me anyway. If power goes out i WILL NOTICE that anyway :slight_smile: It’s just to “survive” surges and short blackouts. Nothing you can do with the information of SOC or something. There is not diesel generator or so waiting for backup …
But it can be installed easily. A little ESP and you monitor voltage and current. But as i said i see no use for this.

You are dead right of course.

Btw: Standby current is “quite high”. The whole 12Ah pack, which is maybe around 10Ah when charged to 4.0V will be down to 3V within 5days w/o doing anything. Just the standby power of the 4 boost/buck converters. So around 80mAh no load current = ~0.8W