Raspberry Pi 4 UPS Plus Power Supply Uninterrupted UPS HAT 18 650 Backup Battery Power Supply Management Expansion Board 5V for Raspberry Pi 4B 3B+ 3B

I put this into service for my 2GB RPi4 running Home Assistant in March 2021. Since then it's been rock solid, weathering multiple power outages and device relocations. Moving to an 8GB RPi4 now that they're in stock (thanks jeffgeerling dot com from rpilocator dot com), but also picked up a RPi5 and tested it first. Worked perfectly, just like on the 4.What it does well:* Gives you a UPS on your Pi. Easy to connect, needs M2.5 screws/standoffs.* Keeps pi running whether power is connected or not. Seems to last a long time, did not test.* Gives you an easy power button.What it could use:* A way to monitor usage through the Pi OS / Linux.* A mounting plate with the pressure springs or a wire, the POGO pins are awesome but no case.* A case for it w/the Pi. I really like the Orange Pi all metal cases.* It could be cheaper. I'd buy 10 of these if they were < $15.

If you leave this "off" for an extended time (weeks), it discharges the battery completely. Then it automatically turns on the Raspberry Pi while it attempts to charge, but then turns it off again -- repeatedly.Since it's a push button on-off switch, there is no way to lock the Pi off while it attempts to charge

I really wanted to like this UPS unit... First notable problem is the software gives you no control over how the batteries are charged. You can write any values you want to the unit, it makes no difference. The unit never stops charging the batteries on a continuous basis as long as power is supplied to the unit. Second problem, the unit has never provided steady 5 volts to the outputs, despite input voltage being around 5.25v from a Raspberry Pi power supply. Output voltage from the UPS has always varied between 4.5 to 4.9 volts, and my Pi 3 B+ won't run stably anymore due to this. I've been using this UPS unit for a little over 3 months with a pair of Sanyo 2500mAh batteries that are known to be good (and do in fact keep the Pi powered without AC mains for well over an hour in this UPS unit), and while in the beginning everything worked well and stable enough, in the last two weeks, the Pi has been rebooting itself more and more frequently to the point where the Pi isn't staying up for more than 6 hours at a time, pointing to a deteriorating UPS output power supply output. Load has not changed in the time the UPS has been in use, it's just the Pi and an MCP3008 with four TMP36 temperature sensors, so I cannot reasonably believe the issue is my loading of the UPS. I wanted to like it, but it looks like unless I can figure out how to raise the UPS unit's output voltage to a reliable level, I will not be using this anymore. For the price of this thing, I expected far better.

I bought two of this product opened the box and one has been assembled, used and not even put together correctly. The second one the pins for the power next to the battery case were in the bag not on the board. This is trash!

Panasonic NCR18650B

Note: 3 different products are lumped together in Amazon's reviews and it's hard to tell which product goes with which review. This review is for the Black UPS...EP-0136.I have never been able to get the unit to function as expected. It is unfortunate, because I suspect that the device is capable, but the maker seems unable or unwilling to provide adequate documentation. For me the unit either shuts down when the batteries reach 3.9 volts or does not shut down at all, draining the batteries completely. Manually changing the protection voltage as demonstrated in a YouTube video has no effect. Also, the video instructions are not consistent with the written manual. Even when completely shutting down the UPS and the Pi, power is supplied to the Pi so that the batteries will drain down completely in a few days.Other than that, it does supply battery power to run a Pi 4-4Gb for up to 6 hours (or 1-2 hours at 3.9v). It does switch between line power and battery power seemlessly. It does charge the batteries when line voltage is restored.

Works for a day or two than it turns off. After disconnecting power and holding the button for a few seconds it will show the battery is low. Then if you connect the power and push the button it will start again and run for a day or two again. Not reliable at all.

The charging lights never go off even when the raspberry pi is not turned on. I can live with this. However, the fuel gauge LEDs are deceptive and do not allow me to get a good fuel for how much juice is left. I had two solid LEDs on the fuel gauge when it shut off due to low power. I've tried several different batteries and charging multiple times but each time is the same