What can I use to power my Raspberry Pi Zero with rechargeable battery?

Question

Is there a 5 V rechargeable battery and cables compatible and comparative in size with Raspberry Pi Zero?

I don't want to have to plug my Raspberry Pi in every time and nonrechargables get expensive. Power banks seem so much bigger than the Zero and aren't viably wearable.

Update: I plan to put a bounty on this question soon, so I would like to clarify a bit more so as to fit the rules. I am not trying to ask for shopping advice, although an adafruit link would be nice. I am just wondering compatibility and what is out there. If you would like me to target a specific battery, I could reword the question as "How can I power my Raspberry Pi Zero with a Samsung Galaxy battery", but I thought there would be a better source. Please let me know how I can fit the rules even more. The answers given are good except many do not include the cables/connectors needed to use them.

Answer 1

I took a quick look at some light and powerful lithium polymer batteries, and it looks to me like a battery similar in scale to the Zero is not going to provide much capacity. Let's keep in mind that the computer only weighs 9 g. A LiPo of similar size [1] contains a about 1.3 W*h of energy, which won't power the Pi Zero for a full 3 hours, even idle. [2] To use that battery (or any LiPo single cell) you'd need a wee boost converter as well, such as the PowerBoost 500 Basic. [3] (It weighs another 3 g.)

Frankly, I think our expectations have been knocked askew by the tiny computer -- what would our "comparable in size" battery have looked like a year ago? What about 5 years ago? Right, now ask yourself whether you expect batteries to somehow follow Moore's Law (or whatever outrageous improvement trend you see in silicon [4] in the last 10 years.)

TL;DR: Batteries can't and don't get better as fast as computers do. :)

[1] https://www.adafruit.com/products/2750

[2] http://raspi.tv/2015/raspberry-pi-zero-power-measurements

[3] https://www.adafruit.com/products/1903

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennard_scaling

Answer 2

You can use:

1. A USB battery pack like this one from Adafruit.
2. Others have used powerbanks like this one these allow charging the battery and powering the Pi simultaneously (more info on using these can be found here).
3. You could use 6 AA rechargeables (this may require additional components).
4. A desktop UPS (this will be significantly bigger than the other options - and hence a not ideal solution).

Answer 3

Rechargeable powerbanks are great for this. They are made to recharge mobile phones, so they have standard USB output. I use them in a few of my projects with different Raspberry Pis including the Zero. The size really depends on how long you need it to stay on battery power. For reference, the Zero uses about 200mA max, so if you want it to run for 10 hours, 200 x 10 = 2000mah. But, there is a weird conversion rate due to the batteries within the bank, so always buy more than you need just to be sure.

Some good options:

• 20000mah

• 50000mah

• 2600mah

• 10000mah

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To connect any one of these to your Pi, you would need a standard USB type A to micro USB, like this one here:

Chances are, since you own a Raspberry Pi, you already own a cable like this. Just plug the USB type A side into any of the USB ports on the powerbank.

And the micro USB side into the power in port on the Pi Zero.

Good to go, the Pi should begin to boot once you've plugged it in!

Below is a picture of my Pi Zero, which I power from a 50000mah power bank.

Answer 4

Yes, they are called powerbanks and they are available in a wide variety of capacities and form factors from any electronics retailer. What they have in common are 5V USB outputs; most of them likely also have a (micro)USB input for recharging. You want one with a 2 A out, but it would be unusual for them not to have this.

The mAh capacity ratings may often be idealized, but obviously the larger the better. A Pi will consume at least 1 A in relation to this rating, and perhaps closer to 2, so if you want more than a few hours, do not bother with anything under 5-6000 mAh.

Answer 5

I have been looking at this combination. Should be all you need.

PowerBoost 500 Charger - Rechargeable 5V Lipo USB Boost @ 500mA+

Answer 6

If you don't mind adding some size to your Zero (comparable to Pi A+) and soldering some pin headers on the GPIO pads, then you could grab the Pi UPS and a Li-Poly. It takes care of charging the battery for you when the Pi is powered on and kicks in when the power is removed/goes out. The size of the battery is your decision but the bigger it is, the longer it will last.

Take a look here.

Answer 7

There are some li-po charging UPS boost circuits on Aliexpress (https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/32783727347.html); Such boards are roughly twice the size of the Pi zero (still not considering the battery size) but they work perfectly for me: I use 6 li-po (2 paralell 3 series) and an output of 15V for my circuit (which then goes into a LM2576 to generate 5V/2,5A for the Pi 4 I'm using).

Answer 8

You may consider choosing this one here.

Aukey 3600mAh Portable External Battery Charger Power Bank

3600mAh, slim fit with USB charging cable included.

Product Dimensions: 4.88in/124mm x 1.79in/45,5mm x 0.45in/11,5 mm

Item Weight: 2.98oz/118g

Answer 9

I was playing about with a £1 Signalex 1200 mAh (Poundland) pack yesterday. I ran my Zero W for nearly 3 hours before I shut down and went to bed. I was accessing Pi via VPN and running various Python scripts to test (working on a halloween build amalgamating others ideas into a bigger single project). I had some banks of LEDs testing, also testing a Blinkt at one point, and a USB keyb/mouse connected. I was shipping stuff to a pen drive for backup and also testing a USB sound card playing sound files.

Battery pack still seemed to be going strong, showing a blue light, I expected it to turn red when battery was getting low.

I'll do some more testing tonight as I gradually pull the project together with my 5 year old son.

Answer 10

If you have old cell phones gathering dust you could repurpose their batteries. Make sure the voltage is right. Mine seem to have 3.7V output but with an upconverter to could up that to 5v.