I'm currently using a 5V 2A power supply; not sure if it is appropriate because some answers say that the max safe current is 1.2 amps. I'm a little confused about this. Is it safe to use my current power supply?
asked Jan 23, 2016 at 8:06
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3With a "voltage source" as a power supply (which is the kind all of those supplies are) there is simply no such thing as "too much current"! related (if not dupe) raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/26083/…– Ghanima ♦Jan 23, 2016 at 9:09
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1As Ghanima points out, if the voltage is fixed, then the current is determined by the (resistance of the) pi itself: I = V/R. If you reduce the voltage, the current will also drop and the pi won't work. If you increase the voltage, then the over current can damage it . Your household circuits are probably 15 or 20 A @ 120V, but they do not burn out low wattage (high resistance) light bulbs instantaneously.– goldilocks ♦Jan 23, 2016 at 12:41
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Unfortunately that seems to be a very common misconception...– Ghanima ♦Jan 23, 2016 at 13:38
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Whatever you do do not use a fast charger– Sohan ArafatOct 30, 2019 at 7:20
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3 Answers
Yes it is safe. The raspberry pi will only draw the current it requires. I use a 1.2A power supply and my raspberry pi draws only 0.53A while running a stereo vision algorithm in the background. This is what i used to test it:
A higher ampere rating on a charger would give you more flexibility such as when adding more usb type peripherals such as a Mouse, Keyboard and Hardrive. The official raspberry pi charger itself is rated at 2A. I am using both chargers, one each for Pi (I have 2 Pi's).
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It is absolutely safe, though you might not need 2A all the time. It depends on number of external devices you have attached to the pi. For example, when I was running pi headlessly along with 2 wifi adapters, I could see current drop intermittently on any one of the adapter. I was using 1A or 1.2A power adapter then. The problem got resolved when I used 2A power adapter.
The big issue mostly is people trying to run peripheral USB devices that try to draw a lot of power thru the RPi....solution is to use a powered USB hub which will provide power thru its' own power bus and not the RPi....the creator of wall warts should be tried for crimes against humanity :)
