MoPower UPS version 2 in development

[mosespi]

Hi Everyone!

I have been working on a new hardware revision (v2) of the MoPower UPS and prototypes are on their way! If you are not familiar, this will be a hardware upgrade of the original UPS which you can find here:
http://www.allspectrum.com/mopower/

Here is a sneak peak at the top side of the board, which is what is visable when mounted on a Pi.
http://www.allspectrum.com/mopower/MOPO ... D-view.jpg

Some highlights of the new board..

- INA219 current sensor is available as an option measuring the voltage and current going to the Pi.
- Most of the components on the board are on the side facing the Pi.. making it possible to mount the UPS into some (possibly most) cases on the market. The CPU and lan controller area are kept clear of tall components, so most heatsinks will still fit.
- There are two switches as before. They are side activated. An optional top mounted switch is available which can act as either the power or the auxiliary switch for those who prefer it.
- There is a 20 pin GPIO on the UPS which provides: 3.3v, 5v, Input power, 4 ADCs, power and status LEDs, all three switches, and a handful of grounds and digital IO pins.
- The 5v converter is from TI, has an efficiency rating of approx 90% and is designed and tests very well up to 3.5 amps.
- Since most of the components are on the bottom of the board, a 9v block cell fits and can be easily attached to the top of the board.
- The input is capable of approx 8-30v input WITHOUT removal of the TVS diode as before, making it suitable for most 'noisy' alternator/automotive systems, both 12/14v and 24/28v.
- The battery charging circuit has improved. There are 3 charge currents which can be selected using solder bridge pads.
- Charge current is now able to be turned off, giving us the ability to detect if a battery is present or not, and saving a small bit of power as well.
- The board is capable of placing a small test load on the battery (approx 30-50ma), giving us a general indication of battery health, this may be provided as an option.

The battery charging circuit is of a constant current type.. so the new board will be suitable for most NiMH batteries as before. Several of my industrial customers seem to prefer NiMH and worldwide availability and variety of cells available is very good. I will likely keep the current sensor and test load features optional, to keep costs down for those who don't need these features. A factory supercap version, with the supercaps on board, is being investigated. A lithium version may be in the works in the future, possibly a 2 x 18650 version, but the board will likely fork to a lithium version if that happens. I anticipate all software features of the prior version will continue with version 2.

If this is something you are interested in, I welcome your questions, comments and suggestions. You can influence the features and design of the board before production release, feedback from the Pi community is invaluable to me!

Thank you!

Regards,
-Moses

[harrie]

Hi MosesPi,

Planning to order a MoPower.
Any idea when revision (v2) will be available?

Regards Harrie

[mosespi]

Harrie,

I am hoping to have hardware version 2 available for public release by the end of June. One note I might not have mentioned, the new version will be sold as an assembled module only, as it not well suited for hand assembly.

Prototypes are on the bench and testing is going well. Battery lifetimes are looking very good, 2.5A 6xAA NiMH cells will power a near idle Pi 3B+ for about 6 hours. Power off 'sleep' current is down to 0.25 mA!

Release quality boards should be going out to a few testers soon.

Regards,
-Moses

[mosespi]

An update: For those who might want to enclose their Pi the UPS fits in some cases with a little bit of modification. Here is a picture of a 3B+ in a case made by Hammond. Modifications took just a few minutes with a drill and snips, including making holes for the power input (barrel connector just above the micro-usb input) and optional top switch (there are two other standard edge mount switches on the PCB).

Attached is a picture, with a few more pictures here:
http://www.allspectrum.com/mopower/MOPOWER-V2-in-case/

The convective airflow does get cutoff a good bit, so it may not be suitable for heavy use, but for general low stress use the thermals seem to do fine.

Regards,
-Moses

MOPOWER-V2-in-case-02.jpg (67.74 KiB) Viewed 1092 times

[mosespi]

Folks,

Some more pictures of the new UPS boards.

http://www.allspectrum.com/mopower/MOPO ... ARE-V2-P2/

I have an extra board that I want to give away to an educator for use in school. If you are a teacher or educator in the US and your Pi project needs some sort of UPS or battery power (solar/etc..) please send me a private message with details of your project or use. I would like to ship it direct to your school about next week sometime. You will need to know the basics of the Pi and it's software/configuration. All I ask is that you get back to me on your experiences with the UPS within 2 weeks of receiving it.

Questions? Comments? I've received very little feedback on the forum, this is a boring topic isn't it?

Thanks!

Regards,
-Moses

[mosespi]

Thank you everyone for your comments and support. We are well on our way to production, with first customer shipments scheduled to go out around mid-July. You can pre-order here: http://www.allspectrum.com/store/mopowe ... -9185.html

The 5v power section works very well. We get very good load regulation of about 1.5% from no load all the way to the maximum design rating of the converter at 3.5A (polyfuse removed). This is a much better then the required 5% regulation of the USB spec with an amp more current then the polyfuse normally will allow! With the polyfuse in place we are still well within the USB specs and have never under normal testing triggered the dreaded 'lightning bolt'.

The INA219 current sensor on the 5v line works well. This is one I myself use a lot. We have decided to make it optional, since not everyone will need it. For those who do, it is very handy to see voltage, current and watts delivered to the Pi in real time.

Again, Thank you everyone for your support and feedback!

Regards,
-Moses

[noopara]

Will the UPS Version 1 board work with mopower-ups-v0.94-build-07-07-2018.tar. I am having problems with the Version 1 UPS board getting the time. Would the .94 version of the software solve this?