Today we will be looking at the best Raspberry Pi UPS power bank hat for your Raspberry Pi 4. UPS stands for uninterruptible power supply.
Table of Contents
Why use a Raspberry Pi UPS power bank hat?
If you live in an area prone to power cuts or even if you want to secure your Raspberry Pi 4 from unexpectedly powering off.
A UPS device can be fitted to your Raspberry Pi 4 and in the event, the mains power supply cuts out the UPS will automatically take over and power the Raspberry Pi 4 from an attached battery bank keeping the Raspberry Pi 4 online. It can even send a graceful shutdown command to your device to make sure a clean shutdown is performed. This is important for data integrity.
It is very important to use a UPS device when you are using your Raspberry Pi 4 for any data handling or storage. Either for backups or media storage.
The power banks and UPS devices we recommend today will work to keep the Raspberry Pi 4 powered on.
To add UPS functionality to external mains-powered USB devices we recommend going with a UPS Power Brick see our guide here https://www.addictedtotech.net/best-ups-for-raspberry-pi-home-network-product-review/.
Our Winner is Pisugar2 Pro Portable :
See our full review below:
- Continuous Operation: PiSugar2 provides UPS function. It can also shut down safely when the power is too low to avoid data loss and damage caused by sudden power failure.
- Elegant Experience: Control the module through well-designed graphical web interface. you can get power level and charging status, configure timing power on, custom button functions, low power auto off, etc.
- Onboard RTC: The onboard RTC makes it possible to obtain real time in any network condition. Timing boot function is also provided.
- Multiple Usage: Charge through TypeC port (compatible with e-mark) or microUSB port. PiSugar2 Pro adopts PH2.0 standard battery plug, you can also replace other lithium batteries with 3.7V output on your need.
- Extensible Power: input/output pads are provided on the circuit board, which can be equipped with any 5V standard charging devices, such as solar panels and QI wireless charging.
Other bestselling UPS power bank hats:
Pisugar2 Pro Portable Review:
The PiSugar2 Pro is compatible with the Raspberry Pi 3B/3B+/4B. There are also other models available for the Pi Zero. Not a conventional hat but works the same way. Connecting to the Pi via the GPIO pins.
Step 1: Hardware Installation:
This UPS power bank hat was easy to assemble. It took 4 screws that secured the UPS hat to the bottom of the Raspberry Pi 4.
It came with pre-soldered pins on the Pisugar2 Pro which aligned perfectly with the underneath of the Raspberry Pi 4’s GPIO pins. This placement has an added bonus as it frees up the GPIO pins to be used from the top for other projects.
The battery has a strong magnet that clips onto the hat securing the battery to the hat and Pi
Step 2: Installing Software and Configuring the Pisugar2 Pro settings.
The software that comes with the Pisugar2 Pro was easy to install on Raspberry Pi OS by running this one line of code.
curl http://cdn.pisugar.com/release/Pisugar-power-manager.sh | sudo bash
The PiSugar2 team has supplied great documentation on their Github which can be found here:
https://github.com/PiSugar/PiSugar/wiki/PiSugar2
Once you select your model the software installation will complete.
Once the software is installed you can access the PiSugar GUI dashboard over the network. From here you can configure the Pisugar2 Pro.
Open a browser and navigate to:
http://<your raspberry ip>:8421
From within the dashboard, you can Enable “Schedule Wake Up” and “Safe Shutdown” as well as program “Custom Button Functions“.
Our Verdict:
Pros
- Easy To Assemble.
- Comes With Custom Software
- Network GUI Dashboard
- Safe Shutdown
- 5 – 7 Hours – Idle Battery Life
- 3 – 4 Hours – watching 1080p movies
Cons
- Makes The Pi Have A Larger Form Factor
- Might Not Fit Into Standard Cases
Apart from the larger form factor, this hat gives to our Raspberry Pi 4. (The PiSugar team has supplied an Open-source 3D Case on the homepage of their website which you can get 3D printed online).
There are not many cons with this device. We have tested it extensively and in all our test shutdowns and powercut simulations, the Pisugar2 Pro worked flawlessly.
The programmable custom button function test worked great. In our test, we set our Pi to shut down when we manually double pressed the hat’s button.
This concludes our product review.
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Last update on 2023-10-04 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Hi
If my house loses mains power, will the ups take over without powering down the pi. Then, can it recognise when the battery is at say 30% capacity and safely shut down the pi. Is it then able to re boot the pi when mains power is restored, maybe by testing for mains power every hour say.
If mains power is restored before the 30% power down will it return to normal monitoring?
Hope this not to complicated to understand.
Mike