Power Bank for Raspberry Pi 4 w/ Stellarmate OS Generic equipment discussions · nickastrobin · 6/22/2022 · 12 · 531 · 2

The RPi 4 recommends a power supply that can provide around 3A of continuous current at 5v (calculated as 2.5A for the Pi + 500mA for USB devices) - this works out as 15 watts, which is sometimes used on power bank advertising instead of the amperage.

I actually ended up making the mistake myself of buying a power bank that could only provide 1.5A per USB port and, while everything appeared to mostly work, I was having a number of strange issues like random reboots and strange patterns in subs that wouldn't calibrate out. These all went away when I switched to a higher amperage power bank.

I've found a capacity of 20,000mAh works fairly well for a full night with power to spare, when I worked it out for my particular set of accessories the next size down (10k) was cutting it fine for winter nights (although YMMV). I use a pair of Anker PowerCore 20K power banks, one for the RPi + accessories (20W USB-C PD) and the other (the aforementioned low power one) to run a USB dew heater band and cooling fan (via a USB to 12V adapter).

I wouldn't worry too much about the Star Adventurer, it's power consumption whilst running (at least at 1x speed) is fairly negligible.

No worries

Whilst trying to work out my issues with the original power bank I ended up buying one of those USB power testers and checking everything one-by-one whilst the Pi was connected to a mains power supply. Don't have the numbers to hand but I ended up working out the average / peak draw of everything, which was when I figured out the issue.

Another thing that just sprung to mind whilst writing this; I'd recommend using a USB C to C cable opposed to a USB A to C one. At least on the power bank I've got the USB A port can only output 13W or so rather than the full 20W of the USB C port.

The RPi 4 recommends a power supply that can provide around 3A of continuous current at 5v (calculated as 2.5A for the Pi + 500mA for USB devices) - this works out as 15 watts, which is sometimes used on power bank advertising instead of the amperage.

I actually ended up making the mistake myself of buying a power bank that could only provide 1.5A per USB port and, while everything appeared to mostly work, I was having a number of strange issues like random reboots and strange patterns in subs that wouldn't calibrate out. These all went away when I switched to a higher amperage power bank.

I've found a capacity of 20,000mAh works fairly well for a full night with power to spare, when I worked it out for my particular set of accessories the next size down (10k) was cutting it fine for winter nights (although YMMV). I use a pair of Anker PowerCore 20K power banks, one for the RPi + accessories (20W USB-C PD) and the other (the aforementioned low power one) to run a USB dew heater band and cooling fan (via a USB to 12V adapter).

I wouldn't worry too much about the Star Adventurer, it's power consumption whilst running (at least at 1x speed) is fairly negligible.

Anker PowerCore 20K power banks are Lithium Polymer, if I am not wrong. Is it good enough investment or should I go for Lithium-Ion ones?

Hi,

in general I have good experiences with the Anker Powerbank but I only use it for charging my phone or on occasion for the dew heaters. For my mini PC I use this Omegon Pro Powerbank 48k LiFePO4 154Wh 12V in combination with a Pegasus Astro Powerbox. Not a cheap solution but very reliable so far. My experiment with a Raspberry PI didn't turn out well in the past, I didn't manage to get it to run reliably in the field - in particular wifi issues were rather annoying. Others seem to have more success. My Raspberry PI connected to the Anker Powerbank occasionally complained about loo low power - one of my reasons to switch to the solution above. 

Clear skies
Wolfgang

Aaron Hakala:
I found this on Amazon.  This lets me plug into the Pegasus power box (I had to add the 12v plug) then I connect it to my stick computer (not the raspberry pi). But same voltage and amp requirements.   This helped me out using the 12v battery for all power running through the power box.