LiFeP04wered/Pi+ Provides High-Performance Power to the Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi (all models) is an excellent platform for IoT projects — home automation, data acquisition/monitoring, weather stations can all take advantage of what the Pi has to offer, but there’s one caveat that limits the board, especially for remote applications, and that’s power.

Cellphone adapters and USB power banks are the go-to options for remote projects, LiFePO4wered is looking to provide a third with their Pi+ high-performance battery power system. It features a UPS and power management options, including boot-up and shutdown button/touch options, input voltage, battery voltage, and RTC functionality.

The features list is fairly extensive for this add-on board, which includes a 1500mAh LiPo (LiFePO4) battery, with an optional 600mAh for low-power applications. It supports up to 2A continuous load current and is equipped with a smart charge controller (overcharge protection, auto-adjust current, and customizable MPP voltage).

There’s also a smart power manager outfitted with I2C communication, continuous voltage monitoring, RTC, on/off button, several LEDs, as well as a wake timer, auto-boot/shutdown options, and an application watchdog. As far as compatibility is concerned, the LiFePO4wered can be used with the entire Raspberry Pi spectrum — Models A+, B+, Pi 2, Pi 3, 3+, Zero and Zero W.

The company is offering some host-side tools (software) to accompany the battery platform — including daemon for shutdown and RTC management, a command line tool for configuration of all features, and a shared library to get you up and running. LiFePO4wered is now available on Crowd Supply, starting at $39 and $45 for the 14500 and 18650 versions, respectively. Units are expected to ship in late October 2018.