99 votes
Accepted

Raspberry Pi Power Limitations

Power requirements of the Pi Raspberry Pi Ltd. (Raspberry Pi Ltd.) has recommendations for various models which range from 700mA to 3.0A. These are quite generous, and all models will operate on a ...
  • 56.8k
33 votes
Accepted

Why does the Raspberry Pi not have a power button?

Modern power buttons use the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) to request the OS to turn its motherboard off. That's why, for a couple decades now, if you really want the motherboard ...
  • 308
31 votes

Will any external battery power a Raspberry Pi?

Short answer Yes, most (but not all!) USB power banks are capable of powering a Raspberry Pi, since they usually have an output voltage of 5 V. And yes, by using a (quite large) 50 Ah power bank, you ...
  • 433
30 votes

Undervoltage warning despite decent power supply

The APX803 chip (which monitors voltage) triggers at 4.63±0.07V. This is an instantaneous level, whereas your meter will show average. Even assuming your meter is correctly calibrated the trigger may ...
  • 56.8k
29 votes
Accepted

Raspberry Pi 3 vs Pi 2 power consumption and heat dissipation

There's a short piece that includes Pi 3 benchmarks over at the PiMoroni blog. All of the benchmarks below were carried out with just a USB keyboard and mouse connected with power supplied from ...
  • 10.7k
28 votes

Raspberry Pi 3 vs Pi 2 power consumption and heat dissipation

When shutting down the HDMI and USB on the Pi3, the current drops to 160 milliAmps. In my tests, this was roughly 200 milliAmps on the Pi2. Thus, shutting down hardware (if you don't need it), can be ...
26 votes

What is the highest voltage from the power supply a Raspberry Pi 3 B can handle without getting damaged?

No, you should not increase the voltage any further... and at least this answer linked in the question does not suggest to do that. From Raspberry Pi Power Limitations: Power sources SHOULD ...
  • 15.7k
24 votes

Current draw for +/2/3/0 models

If you don't want to click links, the Raspberry Pi can handle 4.75v to 5.25v. As for the current draw/power consumption, here are some numbers: All of these are bare-bone (does not have any ...
  • 7,096
23 votes
Accepted

Can I power a Pi through a 5V pin?

This pin is directly connected to the 5V net, meaning indeed it is possible to power through that pin. When under USB power, this net is supplied by USB power, but there is no reason you couldn't ...
  • 2,953
20 votes
Accepted

Dangers of Underpowered Pi?

The main risk I can think of is file system damage. Your Pi is reasonably likely to unexpectedly shut down in the event of insufficient power. If you (or a background process) happened to be in the ...
  • 10.7k
19 votes
Accepted

Use MacBook charger for Raspberry Pi 4

NOTE: Please read the Follow up, 14 Aug 2020 near the end of this post. The "Raspberry Organization" has released revised hardware for the RPi 4B that you should know about before buying. ...
  • 20.1k
19 votes
Accepted

Raspberry Pi 4: turn red LED off (via software)

Should work by writing the appropriate value to /sys/class/leds/led1/trigger on older OS. Use /sys/devices/platform/leds/leds/PWR/trigger on kernel6 which replaced the confusing led1 with explicit PWR ...
  • 3,467
16 votes

How much energy does the Raspberry Pi consume in a day?

I am running a Raspberry Pi2 with a 2TB Western Digital element hard disk mounted as root disk (apm set to 254 - effectively disabling standby) via a Y-connector. Using a USB VA meter (eBay link - ...
16 votes

What is the highest voltage from the power supply a Raspberry Pi 3 B can handle without getting damaged?

The MAXIMUM is 5.25V, although this should NOT be the target. You should not apply more than 5.1V That is not to say the Pi will be damaged by the higher voltage, because nothing uses 5V - the on-...
  • 56.8k
15 votes
Accepted

What can I use to power my Raspberry Pi Zero with rechargeable battery?

I took a quick look at some light and powerful lithium polymer batteries, and it looks to me like a battery similar in scale to the Zero is not going to provide much capacity. Let's keep in mind that ...
  • 1,549
15 votes

Undervoltage warning despite decent power supply

In such cases, please have a look at the USB cable, they have often a high internal resistance which causes the voltage drop. For USB data it's not a problem, but for USB Power (if the connected ...
  • 151
15 votes
Accepted

Rpi freezes every now and then, how to fix it with a watchdog?

Before you go looking into additional hardware, please read up on what's called a "watchdog timer". The Raspberry Pi has a hardware watchdog built in that will power cycle it if the chip is not ...
  • 1,191
15 votes

Powering the Pi 4 - safe voltage levels and current requirements

Voltage level The power management IC (PMIC, see section 3) is a MXL7704 with an input voltage range of 4.0 V to 5.5 V and an absolute maximum rating of 6 V that must not be exceeded. Considering ...
  • 15.7k
14 votes

rPi2 model B v1.1 smoke comes out near power port

The Raspberry Pi requires 5 Volts - if you've fed it 12 Volts you've killed it. Powering the Pi using the GPIO pins bypasses the fuses that might have saved the Pi if you had used the micro USB ...
  • 6,490
13 votes

How do I modify my Raspberry Pi to be powered over PoE?

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (March 2018 blog announcement) and later devices support PoE with an official PoE HAT. Unlike after market PoE HATs for models before the 3B+, the new PoE HAT uses the on-...
  • 4,320
13 votes

Powering Raspberry Pi 3 from another Raspberry Pi 3

You may not blow anything up, but it is still not a good idea. The Pi-3 has a 2.5 amp polyfuse which means that those 2.5 amps would need to be shared between the 2 Pi's. A quick look around this site ...
13 votes
Accepted

DIY uninterruptable power supply (UPS) for Raspberry Pi Zero

Absolutely DO NOT connect the battery in parallel with the load. The charger will not know if the battery is full or not and will continue to pump power both to the battery and the step-up converter. ...
  • 7,096
12 votes

Why does the Raspberry Pi not have a power button?

It's NOT an "end-consumer" device, like an Apple TV or a DVR or a microwave. By analogy If you buy a car you expect it to come with door locks... Yes, but you know the manufacturer does not ...
  • 57.6k
11 votes

Can I use a standard PC power supply to power a Raspberry Pi?

As suggested by @joan's comment the minimum load of such a power supply could be an issue. Back in the olden days when people used PC power supplies as simple and cheap yet powerful lab power sources ...
  • 15.7k
11 votes

Choosing a Pi4 power supply

Use a PoE Hat: Third-party USB-C charging devices can be cheaply wired, potentially destroying connected devices as well as starting fires. A safer alternative is to power your Pi using PoE which ...
  • 1,617
10 votes

Will any external battery power a Raspberry Pi?

As long as the power bank outputs 5V it will power the Pi. It claims 50000mAh so it claims 2.5 amps per hour for 24 hours. Assume it will deliver half that so 1.25 amps for 24 hours. If that is ...
  • 69.3k
10 votes
Accepted

What's the problem with backfeeding?

There is only a problem if you have two 5V supplies fighting with each other. I quite often back power early model Pis, but if I'm doing so I don't also power via the expansion header or the microUSB ...
  • 69.3k
10 votes
Accepted

What are the cooling requirements for Raspberry Pi 3?

More information on this will be available as and when the units start arriving with purchasers and we get a clearer picture of overclocking capabilities and such. To the best of my knowledge the ...
  • 10.7k
10 votes
Accepted

Powering Raspberry PI With Broken Micro USB Connector

This qualifies under category circuit rework. The "best" solution, if the pads are still usable, is to purchase the replacement part and re-attach it. The part is about $1 USD but this does not ...
  • 2,953
10 votes

Constant undervoltage, despite meter showing otherwise

Get a better cable. Most PSUs guarantee the voltage only on the USB-Port. If you use the official Rasperry Pi PSU on the other hand, it guarantees your the voltage on the Micro USB plug. Depending on ...
  • 2,692

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