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

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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Tool & Equipment Used:

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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.

[aardwolf]

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.

[rickmoskovits]

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

[Raymond_Petit]

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!

[late_nights]

Awesome content man. You deserve more subs

[MechnoSferatu]

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.

[herauthon]

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

[MrPirfree]

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 ) .

[drofnasw]

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!

[BlueSun]

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.

[elipeters]

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.

[iblackfeathers]

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.

[mortenmoulder]

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.

[disasterincarnate]

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.

[jamess]

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. 😅

[Darkk]

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

[sukumar]

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

[opcionvital]

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

[juanpaul]

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

[muhammadm]

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

[lutalia]

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