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I have to power 20 Raspberry Pi 3 units from a few 5V 10A power DC power supplies. I have little experience in electronics. The RPis can be up to 1.5m apart from one another. A friend of mine suggested I use four such power supplies and create a power circuit for each 5 RPis. I am essentially looking to have multiple 5V lines passing through the ceiling and individual lines come about 1-2m down to each RPi. The things I need help with are the following:

  • What type of wire I would need
  • I need a sturdy connection from the main 5V line to the RPi (which I want to be able to temporarily disconnect if need be) and I am not sure - here I was thinking about having some kind of sockets on the main 5V line, perhaps some kind of screw-in connector
  • How many power supplies do I need and what is this dependent on (length, thickness of cable; etc)

I expect the individual units to draw less than 1.5A at any given point, as they will only power an accelerometer and their onboard Wi-Fi and BLE.

Thank you!

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  • how are you powering one RPi now? – jsotola Aug 10 '20 at 16:58
  • I am using either a 5v 2A powerbank or the above mentioned PSU with some wires duct taped together. – Andrei Buruntia Aug 10 '20 at 23:24
  • PC ATX power supply. Finding 5v 20a should be easy. Buy molex Y, cut off the male end and have 2 female ends for 2 different Pi's. You could then attach the 5v wires to the 5v wires in a usb cable you cut off. – cybernard Aug 19 '20 at 2:46
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Note: I'm not a 100% sure so please correct me in the comments.

I think you could use 4 USB hubs/splitters that would connect to 4 10A bricks. You would then get 20 Micro USB cables to connect to the individual Pis from the Hubs. Because you have a 10A Power supply, it would supply 2A each to the Pis.

Another solution, if you're willing to buy a power supply, is to get 2-3 bricks like this:

Product Image

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