Geekworm Raspberry Pi UPS, X728 V2.3 (Max 5.1V 6A) 18650 UPS & Power Management Board with Power Loss Detection, Auto On & Safe Shutdown Function for Raspberry Pi 4B/3B+/3B

I put this UPS HAT on a Raspberry Pi 4B as part of a little “mobile lab” setup and it has been great so far. My stack is a Pi 4B on Raspberry Pi OS, a GeekPi PWM cooling hat with a small screen I am not really using yet, and a Panda PAU0F USB Wi-Fi adapter, all powered through this board with two 18650 batteries. Setup was easy. I watched the video the seller links, dropped the 18650 cells into the holder, plugged USB-C power into the hat, and let the hat feed the Pi through the GPIO header. It powered up on the first try and after that I mostly stopped thinking about it. The real test for me was what happens when you pull the plug. When I unplug the USB-C input, the Pi just keeps running. No reboot, no undervoltage icon, no SD card complaints. I have let this setup run on battery for a little over three hours and it stayed completely stable the whole time, which is more than enough for how I plan to use it. I actually started with a regular USB power bank and assumed that would work as a UPS. It did not. As soon as I unplugged the power bank from the wall, the Pi died instantly. That is what pushed me to try a proper UPS hat, and this one does exactly what I wanted. It turned my Pi 4 into something I can unplug, move around, or briefly lose mains on without worrying about corrupting the SD card.

I bought this for my RPI to power it through blackouts, and it works really great. I tested it and it lasted over 24 hours with six 18650 batteries. Recently I was having problems with it rebooting randomly and the customer service was very responsive and helpful! As others have mentioned I do wish it was possible to dim the LEDs via software or switches, but I have a packet of Light Dims which work okay.

Product works very well, and and provides much more power than other similar systems. I'm able to power a Raspberry Pi 4 as well as a 5V USB powered router from the 5V pins on top of the board. They likely don't link to it because Amazon blocks them, but they also have extremely good documentation on their wiki which is easily found by google searching "X728 Geekworm." Their documentation provides both hardware specifications, as well as links to code repos to see how you can read current voltage and battery life status in for either display, auto timeout features, etc.

The Raspberry Pi is a great piece of hardware, but it does not have a way to power on and off using hardware. Turning off power without proper shutdown runs the risk of corrupting the SD card. I needed reliable power management for several Raspberry Pi's running OctoPrint, a media control server and security server. I could not find a working system. In frustration, I had resigned myself to building my own system using an Arduino. That involved writing a bunch of C++ code, as well as designing and ordering my own printed circuit boards. Doable, but not a lot of fun. That's where the X728 system comes in. It does power management well but also includes a battery backup using 18650 lithium batteries. It's a hat, so it plugs in on top of the Raspberry Pi. Standoffs and screws are included so you can securely mount the hat on your Raspberry Pi. It has connectors for a lighted power switch and additional lithium batteries. Instructions are available on the GeekWorm web site. There is a script that needs to be downloaded and then run. It installs several scripts on the Raspberry Pi. You run a few commands to register startup and shutdown scripts. About 15 minutes work and it's done. Easy peasy. My first X728 V2.1 had a problem. It would not shut down. I purchased several X728 V2.1 boards, so it was easy to swap boards. Yep, the first board was defective. GeekWorm tech support was awesome so I'm only knocking one star off. This is the best Raspberry Pi power management solution I have found. Being able to safely control power is essential. The addition of battery backup for critical servers is HUGE! I wish GeekWorm had better quality control, but support is quite responsive. Support is based in China so there is a 24-hour delay to get a response. They start with very basic questions, so it takes a few iterations to find a solution. Update: I have purchased several more X-728 boards and almost each one has problems. Connectors not soldered on, boards that do not work, the list goes on. I want to love this board. I really do. But if you purchase one, resign yourself to dealing with Geekworm's quality control issues. Too bad, because there is a lot to like about this board.

** Updated 11/2/21 They sent me the chip I need to repair my damaged board because I couldn't get it myself. I see there is yet another revision that I would have liked to have but I'm stuck with what I have. One issue with these units is compatibility between versions. I now have 2 different discontinued versions that have different compatibility issues. I hope the ones I have don't break.... **original: Ok, so to be fair, I have several of these and in general they work well and I like them so I ordered another one. I have multiple of version 1.3 and the new one I just got is ver 2.0. It looks like a complete re-design (look at 1.3/2.0 pics and you'll see the differences). THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE THAT CAUSED ME A PROBLEM is that the BATTERIES are oriented differently than the previous versions and of course I just popped the batteries out of the old one and put them in the new one and massive smoke. Yeah, I didn't pay attention so this is a warning that you should. On the other hand, CHEAP, SIMPLE DIODES could have prevented my problem. So now I have a cool looking paper weight. I hope nobody else has the issue I had and I hope they add some diodes.