3

I plan to use a USB power bank to power my Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, but I need to know the battery level/percentage. There is the battery icon and percentage in the top right corner. Does this correctly give the battery percentage of my external power bank? (I highly doubt it)

If not, is there a way to do so without additional hardware? Or are there special power banks that can give the battery level?

2
  • "battery icon": Do you mean the undervoltage warning icon?
    – Fabian
    May 3, 2018 at 10:21
  • Powerbanks are not designed for powering live electronics: They are designed for recharging the primary batteries in mobile devices. As such, they don't have the circuitry necessary to maintain a steady 5V and may even intentionally not supply such under load: raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/a/83556/5538
    – goldilocks ♦
    May 3, 2018 at 13:29

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

Only batteries supporting the Smart Battery Standard over SMBus/I2C can be used with Raspbians Battery Monitor applet. The only battery supporting this (AFAIK) is built into the pi-top Laptop.

No Raspberry Pi can correctly measure its own input voltage without additional components.

4
  • What is the battery percentage icon for then? can the pi-top laptop be bought separately? are there any simple circuits I could use with a USB power bank that could allow me to monitor the battery level?
    – TanMath
    May 3, 2018 at 7:02
  • Please ask new questions. Comments are for discussion of answers.
    – flakeshake
    May 3, 2018 at 8:55
  • Ok will do, but I guess there are no such batteries available for RPi...
    – TanMath
    May 4, 2018 at 4:37
  • @TanMath just post the picture of your USB power bank
    – yogece
    May 4, 2018 at 9:33

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.