Pro:
Functions well as a true UPS.
Documentation is good.
Customer service is good.

Con:
The optional Stackable 40-pin Header uses non-compliant pins (not 0.025" sq), which cannot be trusted to connect reliably with normal mating connectors.
The specified current capacity of 0.85 amps seems too low for the price of the product.

David | Dec. 22, 2017

Works as advertised

For LiFePO4wered/Pi3

Excellent product, no surprise, no effort. Almost plug and play.
I got 2h20 of autonomy on a headless Pi3 doing light duty network tasks.
As of feature suggestion, I believe it should not be that difficult to build-in a RTC clock for when the Pi is powered off.
Also, the capacitive button with the LED is cool, but I prefer a standard click button, I'm a bit old school.

Kathia | Dec. 12, 2017

I did not receive the product :(

For LiFePO4wered/Pi

Dear reader,
I have ordered a LiFePO4wered/Pi (Stackable header: Normal small 8-pin header; Heat sink: Heat sink on charger; Mounting kit: Include mounting kit) on october the 27, and i did not receive it.

Tracking Number: UA927042879US

Please could you resend the product to the following address :

Fadi Ladhari
14 rue Roger Morinet
Villejuif, Ile de France
94800
France

Plase find the bill in attachment

Thank you very much for your help

Kathia Abed

Response from Silicognition LLC | Dec. 12, 2017

Kathia,

I don't know if it was your intention, but a review is not the right place for this. You are sharing personal information with the whole world since this is public.

According to the tracking information, as of right now the package is still in transit. This is still a normal amount of time for international shipping. Most likely your package is held at customs in your country and you are expected to pay duties to have it released. Please contact your local customs office to check if this is the case.

Patrick

Boris | Oct. 24, 2017

Well designed, good software support

For LiFePO4wered/Pi

Great product, well designed. Thank you for making it.
I am using this UPS for Raspberry Pi Zero W in headless mode. With auto_boot option there is no need for the button press, and it works as expected without any intervention. Using wireless does consume more power, but I have not measured the current so I am not sure if it could deplete the battery faster than it's being charged. Using this in Python so I had to write a little CLI wrapper that uses subprocess.
Some features that would be nice to have:
- current monitoring (like MAX44286)
- battery capacity calculation
- Python module (not CLI wrapper)
- option to solder +5V in
-option to solder the LiFePo cell or use a cell with tabs
- a version of the product as a kit of 4 components: 2 pcbs, battery holder, header - this leaves flexibility to meet space constraints that some people have, use different battery size / with tabs.

Ned | July 17, 2017

Excellent piece of hardware; installs and works flawlessly

For LiFePO4wered/Pi3

After several mishaps where a Raspberry Pi containing important data ended up with a corrupted filesystem, I decided to add this combination UPS/shutdown-startup-control module. Installation was trivial and so was setup - download the software, build, install, done.

The documentation is a little on the terse side but everything you really need is there. (Tip: If a CLI command returns -1 you've probably forgotten to run it as root/with sudo.) I needed to set exactly one parameter (auto_boot) to something other than the default.

Chase | June 2, 2017

Great product

For LiFePO4wered/Pi3

I needed a product like this for a Raspberry Pi arcade cabinet. I wanted to be able to flip a switch and turn off the monitor, speakers, etc. without hard-powering the Pi down and potentially damaging the file system. It's super easy to set up and you can get it working in about 10 minutes.

Nicolas | May 25, 2017

Very good :)

For LiFePO4wered/Pi3

The device works great, doing exactly what is expected. Only a little stability problem: the battery is physically not holded enough. Might be improved in coming versions.

Thomas | April 12, 2017

Perfect Raspberry Pi 3 UPS

For LiFePO4wered/Pi3

Best Raspberry Pi 3 UPS I could find around the net. Most commercial Pi3 UPS systems use LiPo batteries which are not as safe as LiFePO4 batteries. Easy installation and good communication with the maker! Also reasonable shipping prices to Germany.

Raman | March 28, 2017

My application required special work...

For LiFePO4wered/Pi3

The support however was amazing and helped me get there. I purchased to run this on LibreElec, that requires some tweaking so beware but it work well now. I'll be sharing my notes with the seller shortly and hopefully he can update his docs to help others.

Nicolas | March 15, 2017

Excellent

For LiFePO4wered/Pi

Parfait pour tous les projets mobiles ( ou pas). Fini les corruptions de cartes Sd. Bravo et Merci.

Nicolas | March 15, 2017

Excellent

For LiFePO4wered/Pi3

Parfait pour tous les projets mobiles ( ou pas). Fini les corruptions de cartes Sd. Bravo et Merci.

Tim | March 9, 2017

Great product

For LiFePO4wered/Pi3

I bought the LiFePO4wered/Pi3 to use with a dash cam project for my car. I also bought the case available. Everything installed fine, but I found myself wishing for a little more concrete directions for how to install it right out of the box, and what to expect. Other than that it has worked very well. I took the small fan from my previous Pi case and installed it in the new case, running off the GPIO extender from the UPS with no problem. Very pleased.

D H | Feb. 28, 2017

generally pleased. will be buying another one

For LiFePO4wered/Pi3

The physical mount would benefit from going all the way to the other end and hard mount to the hole on the rPi. At present it really hangs (and it does, heavy battery) off the top 8 GPIO pins and one mounting hole.

Don't let that stop you though, i merely glued a couple of stand offs to the battery casing.

Installation is quite easy, most n00bz shouldn't have any worries.

CREATE a .SH to do your configuration and put it on the OS SD card. Call it at boot time from /etc/rc.local. Its easy to do and if you balls up the config you can edit the file elsewhere, boot and reconfigure the board.

I did send them a request for defaults after i ballsed up one of the config settings (fixed as per above) but then i realised all the defaults are in the documentation. Still, i never received a response from the support email which was disappointing but ultimately...neh.

Response from Silicognition LLC | Feb. 28, 2017

Hi Hamish,

I'm sorry to hear you didn't get my response. I did answer your email on Feb 23, unfortunately Gmail has the nasty habit of throwing my emails in the spam folder. Not much I can do about it...

I'd also like to point out that the settings can be saved in flash so you don't really need to run a script at every boot.

Thanks for the review!
Patrick

Richard | Feb. 27, 2017

A great solution for a RPI UPS

For LiFePO4wered/Pi3

It works well and does what they said. It does tie up I2C bus, which is a hassle if you want to use that. A header for the power connector would be nice for a remote switch.

Peter | Feb. 23, 2017

Great little UPS -plus- LiFePo4-charger -plus- on/off switch

For LiFePO4wered/Pi

Looking for a compact and portable battery pack/power supply for my Raspi Pi Zero, i found this little gem.

On top of its compact size and focus on more safety (intrinsically safe material), it combines the UPS with a charger unit AND an on/off-button for safe shutdown. This three very useful functions combined in one compact, well thought unit makes the LiFePO4wered-Pi kind of unique.
I could not find anything like it on usual webshops for raspi-stuff.

I ordered the LiFePO4wered-Pi device for powering a Pi Zero. I had some inquiries regarding the installation of the software, the seller/shopowner replied within hours and helped me to sort things out till the device worked. great contact and customer service.

Shipping (foreign country) was done really fast and without any problems. The unit was packed safely.

Alan | Jan. 10, 2017

An On/Off switch and No more corrupted filesystems...

For LiFePO4wered/Pi3

I have this hooked up to a Pi2 being used as my backup Flightaware ADSB receiver while evaluating it. As it works GREAT, I will shortly be getting another one to use on my main Pi2 receiver that is mounted outside the house. I really dislike it when I'm working on the house and turn off circuit breakers and accidentally suddenly power off my Pis, potentially corrupting their filesystems and creating more work - especially for the one I need a ladder to reach.

The LiFePO4wered/Pi3 works great. I did have to adjust some of the thresholds, as when running the ADSB software pulls enough power that out of the box it would go into "shutdown/reboot" cycles when I turned on autoboot and tested removing the power. So I just raised the "auto boot" threshold since I'm willing to wait a bit for more battery recharge after the power comes back on. With the Pi outside on a ladder, I'm more interested in reliability and predictability (not having to get out the ladder) than I am about availability (exactly how many minutes/year it is up). Especially since if I really lose power at the house, the switch and router will also lose power, so there isn't much point in the server(s) running.

Was easy to install the driver following the instructions, but it did take some work to figure out good thresholds for the auto-boot that would ensure the battery was recharged enough to avoid re-shutdown when the PI was drawing power, but not so high that it would never auto-boot. But a few practise runs with pulling the power and watching Vbat and we got there...

I'm rating "communication" as a 5, though I din't really have any communication.. but I din't need any so that's great, right?

Brian | Oct. 27, 2016

Worth purchasing

For LiFePO4wered/Pi

I have only one suggestion: make it easier to completely turn off the battery. If the device is attached but not being used or charged I'd like to be able to turn it off; like when it's going to disconnected for several days. Other than that, I like the device and will get at least 1 more.

Earl | Sept. 19, 2016

Great product -- Solves a problem keeping Pi running

For LiFePO4wered/Pi

I have this in place on some home automation systems. Keeps things running across power outages, and brownouts. First simple, solid solution I've found. Works right out of the box. Very simple install. Tried other solutions, all were more complicated to set up, physically larger and fail to work in all cases. This one solves my problems nicely! Only issue is to find a case it will fit in.

Response from Silicognition LLC | Sept. 19, 2016

Thanks for the review Earl!
As for the case, I'm working on solutions for that. Another Tindier will hopefully be able to provide a case that fits the Pi with the LiFePO4wered/Pi soon! :)
You only gave 3 stars for documentation, any suggestions on what I should improve?

Michal | March 9, 2016

The only solution for LiFePO4 backup power

For LiFePO4wered/USB

My 2 LiFePO4wered units arrived quickly to Australia. It is good value for money, however the plastic 14500 (AA) battery holder is of poor quality. It is too small for the battery provided and will most likely brake after some use. It is not a huge concern to me as I was going to use a larger capacity cell anyway in my project. I am now testing the unit with a boost-buck 5V converter and solar cell to make a solar powered project. Keep in mind that LiFePO4 is the only lithium battery I would deploy outdoors in Australian conditions - LiPos or Li-ions are simply not safe and prone to overheating which could lead to explosion - not what you'd like! I have been exchanging emails with the maker and he is working on other versions so stay tuned!

Response from Silicognition LLC | Nov. 1, 2016

Thank you for the feedback Michal! I have not heard of any case where the battery holder actually broke, but I'm happy to let you know that I have since switched to a better holder that fits the cells very nicely.

Paul | Feb. 3, 2016

Excellent - convenient and power-efficient

For LiFePO4wered/USB with tabbed LiFePO4 cell

Excellent. Nicely convenient cell voltage at 3.3V means you often don't need a regulator to power MCUs, sensors, and other modules. That lack of regulator means even less power wasted on what is already quite an efficient cell arrangement. The 4-pin breakout header gives the cell terminals and also the D+/D- signal lines from the micro USB port, making this a convenient module to add USB support to your product that has an easy recharge ability there too.

I've already used several of the holder-based versions of this module, and I'm using more again of this now smaller variant for situations where I don't need (or want) the removable cell. I've no doubt I'll continue to order many more in time...

Paul | Feb. 3, 2016

Excellent - convenient and power-efficient

For LiFePO4wered/USB

Excellent. Nicely convenient cell voltage at 3.3V means you often don't need a regulator to power MCUs, sensors, and other modules. That lack of regulator means even less power wasted on what is already quite an efficient cell arrangement. The 4-pin breakout header gives the cell terminals and also the D+/D- signal lines from the micro USB port, making this a convenient module to add USB support to your product that has an easy recharge ability there too.

I've already used several of this holder-based module, and I'm using some of the newer smaller solder-tag variant for situations where I don't need (or want) the removable cell. I've no doubt I'll continue to order many more in time...

Paul | Sept. 18, 2015

Good product!

For LiFePO4wered/USB

Tested with an ESP8266 module and the battery lasts much longer than a standard LiPo battery. Voltage regulation is good and produces a smooth 3.3V consistently

Response from Silicognition LLC | Sept. 24, 2015

Thanks for the review Paul!
Looks like you thought the documentation was lacking, care to share what you'd like to see improved? Thanks! :)