I own the 4xAA Battery pack that Adafruit sells in store, and I was wondering if I could just straight up connect the two leads from the pack to the 5V pin and GND pin on the Pi and have a portable power source right there. Or would I need some kind of voltage regulators?
Thanks!
4xAA Battery plus Raspberry Pi
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- adafruit_support_mike
- Posts: 67446
- Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm
Re: 4xAA Battery plus Raspberry Pi
That's a fast and reliable way to kill your RasPi.
The microprocessor at the heart of the RasPi is built to work on USB votlages: 4.75v to 5.25v. Supply voltages 5.5v or higer will kill it.
The RasPi's on-board power system is a bit fragile.. that was one of the tradeoffs necessary to bring the sale price under 35 pounds. There's no voltage regulator anywhere on the PCB, and only a polyfuse between the mini-USB connector and the main power rails. The GPIO pins are completely unprotected, so anything connected to those has a lot of freedom to damage the microprocessor.
You can connect your own voltage regulator to the RasPi to provide a safe voltage (this one would do a great job: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1065), but raw 6v power just won't work.
The microprocessor at the heart of the RasPi is built to work on USB votlages: 4.75v to 5.25v. Supply voltages 5.5v or higer will kill it.
The RasPi's on-board power system is a bit fragile.. that was one of the tradeoffs necessary to bring the sale price under 35 pounds. There's no voltage regulator anywhere on the PCB, and only a polyfuse between the mini-USB connector and the main power rails. The GPIO pins are completely unprotected, so anything connected to those has a lot of freedom to damage the microprocessor.
You can connect your own voltage regulator to the RasPi to provide a safe voltage (this one would do a great job: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1065), but raw 6v power just won't work.
- rahatmaini
- Posts: 176
- Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2012 5:15 pm
Re: 4xAA Battery plus Raspberry Pi
Glad I didn't try that, but do you guys carry any battery packs or a portable source of power safe for the Pi in the Adafruit Store?
Thanks again
Thanks again
- adafruit_support_bill
- Posts: 88087
- Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.