Raspberry Pi Forums

Hi all,

I was given a free power bank, normally used for charging a mobile phone when your out and you have no charging points available so I was wondering if you could use one to power the PI 3.

Here is the information from the back of the power bank “DC 5V / 1A 2500mAh”

Has anyone else tried this with any success.

Cheers

John

The RPi 3b is much more power thirsty than earlier models. You might get away with this when totally idle but not if the RPi is doing much, particularly graphics intensive browsing or games. On the other hand, earlier models and the current RPi zero could operate on the lower current output but of course, much slower.

There are many threads here about using powerbanks on a RPi.
Your powerbank is small capacity but should run the RPi for an hour or 2 depending on what else is connected to the RPi.
Be careful to make sure you shut down the RPi properly before the battery is depleted.
Note that most powerbanks cannot be used and charged at the same time.

Thanks again for the help, all great information.

If the power bank has good voltage regulation and can maintain 5V up to its 1A output, then it *should* be able to run a Pi3. Note that the recommended power supply for a Pi3 is 5V/2.5A, but in reality it's pretty hard to get a Pi3 to draw more than 1A, so in all but extreme use cases it should work. But again, that depends on the voltage regulation, and many phone chargers have poor voltage regulation.

johnellis1980 wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 28, 2017 4:52 pm

Hi all,

I was given a free power bank, normally used for charging a mobile phone when your out and you have no charging points available so I was wondering if you could use one to power the PI 3.

Here is the information from the back of the power bank “DC 5V / 1A 2500mAh”

Has anyone else tried this with any success.

Cheers

John

https://www.modmypi.com/raspberry-pi/po ... wer-supply

1A is really not enough to do more than just--barely--run a Pi3B. On the other hand, it would run a Pi0 or Pi0W for several hours. I get 12 hours or so running a Pi0W with a 3.5" display on a 4Ah powerbank and about 5 hours running a Pi2Bv1.1 and a 7" RPF touchscreen plus keyboard and mouse from a 10.4Ah powerbank.

Typical bare-board active current consumption for a 3B is 400mA https://www.raspberrypi.org/help/faqs/#powerReqs
IMHO 1A is iffy. If you do try it keep an eye out for a lightning bolt flashing up on screen. If you see that your getting an under volt condition. Your power bank is dropping the voltage under load. I think 4.65 is the tipping point for the warning.

How long does the Pi need to run?

I would set up an SD card with whatever you need to run and try it. Be prepared to sacrifice an SD card or two. Also bear in mind that as the powerbank ages, it will take longer to recharge and provide less run-time, so you may need take that into account as well.