A late update on the UPS in my wish list: I have not bought one.
That's to say, I did not really buy a UPS for all my Pi's or a UPS for each of my Pi's, I did however buy a power station for all of my small electrics stuff.
Some history...
More than 20 years ago I moved house, and having to reorganize all computer stuff anyway seemed a good opportunity to get me a UPS. So I did, and it did it's job for 4 years before it died on me, and I never replaced the battery. Since then I did loose a modem due to some power outage and subsequent purge at reconnect, but that's all the damage I had to endure in more than 15 years.
So, why a UPS, is it even necessary?
Now...
Times have changed, power outages of minutes, hours or even days may be coming, even in my country, and an alternative power source that will keep things running might not be such a bad idea. A nice power bank could do that, one being able to load with AC but also with solar in case of prolonged outage, and a UPS would not even be necessary if my Pi's with their SD-cards weren't so easily corrupted at power interrupt.
The alternative...
Aren't there any powerbanks with UPS combined, you may ask. Well, I never found one good enough, untill I did, some months ago. However, the UPS is still not a full blown UPS. Real UPS's have Automatic Voltage Regulation and Surge Protection, this power bank has not. And price wise it doesn't even compare to a UPS, it is way more expensive.
But it does have the one killer feature I was looking for, it switches from AC to battery within 10 ms at AC down, and automatically back to AC when up again. And all the time AC is connected, the battery is kept at 100% or the max percentage you want it to have.
Lifetime-wise, power stations with this kind of LiFe(PO4) battery can last up to 10 years (or, on 20% reduced capacity even more). They are as stable as lead-acid UPS batteries and way safer than Li-Ion batteries because of a vastly reduced risk of overheating. And because of this, cooling can stay whisper soft, below 30db. Also, they are light compared to a lead-acid UPS of the same capacity, the one I bought has a capacity of 245 Wh and only weighs 3,5 kg.
I use a separate Surge Protection to complement the setup. It's in front of the power bank, grounding
is solid, and the power bank is the only peripheral connected to it, so no voltage is drawn away from the power bank that may trigger the switch to battery when AC is still there.
All in all, this was quite an expensive exercise to safeguard my RPI's. Hopefully relieved from any
electric worries from now on and staying unburdened for the coming ten years or more.
That's to say, I did not really buy a UPS for all my Pi's or a UPS for each of my Pi's, I did however buy a power station for all of my small electrics stuff.
Some history...
More than 20 years ago I moved house, and having to reorganize all computer stuff anyway seemed a good opportunity to get me a UPS. So I did, and it did it's job for 4 years before it died on me, and I never replaced the battery. Since then I did loose a modem due to some power outage and subsequent purge at reconnect, but that's all the damage I had to endure in more than 15 years.
So, why a UPS, is it even necessary?
Now...
Times have changed, power outages of minutes, hours or even days may be coming, even in my country, and an alternative power source that will keep things running might not be such a bad idea. A nice power bank could do that, one being able to load with AC but also with solar in case of prolonged outage, and a UPS would not even be necessary if my Pi's with their SD-cards weren't so easily corrupted at power interrupt.
The alternative...
Aren't there any powerbanks with UPS combined, you may ask. Well, I never found one good enough, untill I did, some months ago. However, the UPS is still not a full blown UPS. Real UPS's have Automatic Voltage Regulation and Surge Protection, this power bank has not. And price wise it doesn't even compare to a UPS, it is way more expensive.
But it does have the one killer feature I was looking for, it switches from AC to battery within 10 ms at AC down, and automatically back to AC when up again. And all the time AC is connected, the battery is kept at 100% or the max percentage you want it to have.
Lifetime-wise, power stations with this kind of LiFe(PO4) battery can last up to 10 years (or, on 20% reduced capacity even more). They are as stable as lead-acid UPS batteries and way safer than Li-Ion batteries because of a vastly reduced risk of overheating. And because of this, cooling can stay whisper soft, below 30db. Also, they are light compared to a lead-acid UPS of the same capacity, the one I bought has a capacity of 245 Wh and only weighs 3,5 kg.
I use a separate Surge Protection to complement the setup. It's in front of the power bank, grounding
is solid, and the power bank is the only peripheral connected to it, so no voltage is drawn away from the power bank that may trigger the switch to battery when AC is still there.
All in all, this was quite an expensive exercise to safeguard my RPI's. Hopefully relieved from any
electric worries from now on and staying unburdened for the coming ten years or more.
Statistics: Posted by HanDonotob — Mon May 19, 2025 6:37 pm