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I ordered a few Raspberry Pi 4s, still under way, each with their own power supply, and I plan to get more, but when I have been previously able to power RPis with USB-hub, there's apparently no USB-C-hubs, beyond few expensive 2 usb-c-port-hubs, in the existance:

https://superuser.com/questions/1381139/why-cant-i-find-a-usb-c-hub-with-multiple-usb-c-ports

So is the only option hoping to find some slim enough 5V/3A/15W USB-C charger for each RPi4 and plugging those into extension cords?

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The official Power Requirements of the Pi 4B is 5v, 3.0A - I.e. a total of 15W maximum power requirement from each of the Pis, so a 60W USB power supply, or larger, would be ideal. This is a maximum, as they acknowledge with:

We recommend a 2.5A (2500mA) power supply, from a reputable retailer, that will provide you with enough power to run your Raspberry Pi for most applications, including use of the 4 USB ports.

This month, I have built a 4 board Hadoop/Spark cluster following this guide.

I looked at the possibility of buying a PC Power Supply but for a 4-Pi cluster, that seemed like overkill and would generate a clunky solution.

To power it, I bought an Anker 63W 5-port USB Charger and 30cm USB to USB-C cables. There's no need for a USB-C hub and, as you point out, they don't exist in any case.

It's true, that only two of the sockets are rated at 3.0A, the others are described as 2.4A, but even with the draw from the fans that came as part of the cluster case (5V 0.2A) the cluster works perfectly well. I am running them headless and won't be having any external peripherals so I don't foresee any power issues with this setup.

enter image description here

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Los Alamos labs looked at powering a huge cluster of RPi to cheaply simulate their supercomputer cluster . Out of that came the Bitscope blades which will mount 4 Rpi per blade and host IIRC ten blades in a single rack.

It might be worth a look. Each blade is capable of delivering up to 4A current and is compatible with DC power sources ranging from 9V to 48V.

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Here is what you can do. Open a casing of a desktop PC. You will find a PSU. That PSU is called SMPS. Now go to a store and find that PSU. Grab it(of course after buying) and come home. Short the green line with black and power the SMPS. Find the 5 volt line with 5V-15A power and split that line into many USB type-C cable.

Buy a 5 volt 15 A power source

Or use 3 or 4 ,5V-3A BEC with 12 volt LiPo battery to power your boards.

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    Ah, your PSU grabbing story is interesting. That is what I used to power my Arduinos. I did not short the green wire to ground. Instead, I extracted the green wire outside and used it as a touch button power switch. Actually I also used the other powers of the Desktop PC 12V ATX PSU: 3V3, 5V0, 12V.
    – tlfong01
    Commented Oct 31, 2019 at 5:22
  • How do you split into multiple USB-C cables? which wires should be used?
    – FarO
    Commented Jan 16, 2020 at 8:42
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Buy a USB hub for charging (Anker, Belkin, etc.) and use that. No need to go all the way to the wall for multiple PIs.

This guy built an interesting stack including a USB powered network hub. https://makezine.com/projects/build-a-compact-4-node-raspberry-pi-cluster/

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  • The link you provided is 5 years outdated and uses micro USB connectors! And the OP told there is no cheep USB type C hub. So what?
    – Ingo
    Commented Feb 16, 2020 at 20:50
  • Yea, you make a good point. The original question was about USB-C hubs. However, I'm not sure you need all USB-C to power your PIs. Buy a simple USB charging hub as the post mentions (and my answer) and buy a few USB -> USB-C cables and you're done. I've got a USB charging hub powering two 4Bs and one 2B. I got the hub and three cables for ~ $40 USD. Seems reasonable.
    – SprocketRocket
    Commented Feb 17, 2020 at 21:22
  • This answer is bad advice as it doesn't mention amperage at all. Most first finds online are hubs whose ports only provide <2A. It's extremely rare and hard to find hubs whose all ports provide 3A. That's the main issue of powering multiple raspberry pis with one outlet port.
    – adamency
    Commented Jun 15 at 15:39
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I use a power strip like this to power my raspberry pi stack https://amzn.to/30M8ggt

My Docker Swarm Cluster

The manager node in the black case is using an official pi power supply since it has a SSD for its drive. Stay away from "smart" USB ports for power

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I bought 2 of these, 2 usbc 18W port, it works well but it's kinda bulky https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Two-Port-Charger-Tablets-Delivery/dp/B087MDRFWW

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  • Protip: amazon links require nothing but the /dp/xy part to function. Also, consider using the hyperlink tool to hide long links behind friendlier names like 'Amazon link'
    – mystery
    Commented Nov 15, 2022 at 14:52
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I plan to use a daisy-chained jumper wire like this https://www.amazon.com/Schmartboard-Daisy-Chained-Female-Jumpers/dp/B00HKJPW1Q/ along with 100W PSU https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DKCMJN9

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    Commented Apr 22 at 16:59

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