pi 2 battery

[deepdivered]

i am making a portable raspberry pi 2. i have seen it needs 5v and 2 - 2.5 amp to run. i am looking at this for my battery 3.7V 12000mAh LiPo Li-Polymer Rechargeable Battery http://www.ebay.com/itm/A-3-7V-12000mAh ... 4ac55db4fd

then i was thinking to add the powerboost 500c but i think it will not be able to supply enough amps. is that correct? instead i am looking at the powerboost 1000 plus Adafruit Micro Lipo w/MicroUSB Jack - USB LiIon/LiPoly charger - v1

will this work to power the pi 2 and also be able to charge it? or could i use the powerboost 500c?

[deepdivered]

or i may use this one instead
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-7V-10000-mAh- ... 9e68a4d9d.

[adafruit_support_mike]

The 12000mAh unit appears to be a 'raw' LiPo: one without protection circuits to keep it from overheating or discharging too far.

You generally want to stay away from those unless you have a specific reason to need them. Airframes like quadcopters use raw LiPos because you don't want the power to cut out when something is 100' in the air. It's a choice between sacrificing a $50 battery pack and letting an airframe worth maybe $1000 smash into pieces though.

The 10000mAh unit does appear to have a protection circuit. Assuming nominal performance from the LiPo, you should be able to connect that to a PowerBoost 1000 and run a RasPi.

[deepdivered]

if i can use a powerboost 500c id rather use that cuz it will both boost the power and give me a way to charge it on one board. will it work on a pi 2 and the 100000mah battery?

[adafruit_support_mike]

It would probably work, but I can't make any promises without being able to refer to a manufacturer's datasheet.

One point to note: the PowerBoost 500C charges at 500mA. It would take 20-30 hours to fully charge a 10,000mAh pack that way.

[deepdivered]

Wow thanks for this info. ya that's a bit long. So sounds like I will need a different charge board. What would be a good charger to pair up with the powerboost 1000?

[adafruit_support_mike]

The PowerBoost 1000 draws about 1.5A @ 3.7v of input to produce 1A @ 5v of output, so ideally you'd want a charger that can deliver at least that much. Then you'll have to add in the current to charge the LiPo.

To charge a 10,000 mAh LiPo at 1C you'd need a 10A charger. That's far beyond the limits of anything we sell, but a charger that size would be able to spare 1.5A for the PowerBoost.

You'd need to check your battery specs to see what charge/discharge rate it's designed for. When in doubt, it's usually safe to assume the default rate is 0.5C, which would be 5A for a 10,000 mAh LiPo.

[deepdivered]

Do you think I need a 10,000mah battery for my project? I want to to be able to run at least 4-5 hrs.

[adafruit_support_mike]

Find the amount of current your system uses in milliamps, multply that by the amount of time you want the battery to last, then multiply that by 1.5 to get the amount of current a PowerBoost will consume. That will be the lowest possible value that will work, and you'll probably want to find a battery at least 20% larger to allow some headroom.