Lipo rider pro as UPS

I have a problem with lipo pro rider and raspbery
I bought two lipo rider pro at Seeedstudio and two Lipo batteries at Adafruit.
This is to power two raspberry projects.
When I connect the lipo rider pro to raspbery and I power the USB port of lipo rider pro, the battery (2500 mah) is discharged in two days and raspberry crashes.
I thought the lipo rider power the raspberry with the USB port and the battery does when there is a power outage, but it does not work.
The battery recharges when I put the switch of lipo rider to OFF. I tested with two lipo rider pro, two types of batteries, a raspberry model A a model B .
Anyone know the problem or the solution?

I did some tests and discover that the 'Program Mode" of the lipo rider (see on the seedstudio wiki seeedstudio.com/wiki/Lipo_Rider_V1.1) :
seeedstudio.com/wiki/images/ … rogram.JPG
doesn’t work with lipo rider pro !
When I only connect the source USB :

  • when the switch is OFF, Raspberry is off !
  • when the switch is ON, red led on raspberry is on, but it doesn’t start : not enough power !! My USB transformer is 5v 2a… it’s enough. I tried an other one, same thing…
    strange.

If you wanna provide power to Raspberry Pi via Lipo rider pro , you need plug the battery onto lipo rider pro, and turn the switch to “ON” position. The lipo rider pro can’t provide enough power to Raspberry Pi without plugging battery.

Same question here: Is it possible to use lipo rider pro as a UPS, keeping the usb connected to a wall adapter, and prevent the lipo to be used/drained as long as the wall adapter delivers power?

It is possible but may not if the USB port(wall adapter) can’t provide enough power to the output. Battery will provide power to output automatic if the previous situation happen.

Jacket

Why did you say this? He knows that. He explicitly said that the Lipo rider was connected to both USB and the battery, but it turns off anyways. Please, don’t reply unless you’ve read the question.

I have the same problem. I connected it to USB and a 4000mAh Lipo battery, and just as you said, after a day, the battery was dead and the Rider wouldn’t even power the RPi from the USB. If I switch it off, the battery recharges, but off course I can’t power the RPi. It looks like the Lipo Rider Pro is simply junk and can not be used as a UPS.

Looking at the schematics, it looks like the problem is that the step-up converter that provides 5V from the battery is always active. Even though the USB input is directly wired to the output, the battery is always going to be discharged also.

The step-up used is a ISL97516IUZ, which has a EN (enable) pin that will turn the converter off if pulled low. It’s currently tied to battery +, so it’s always on if a battery is present. If EN was pulled low when USB power was supplied, everything would work as expected. Unfortunately, the traces are inaccessible, so it’s going to be a bear to hack. I’ll see if I can make it work this weekend.

The downside of this change is that if the USB provides too little voltage, it will still pull that pin low and shutdown the supply from the battery. Also, if the USB input provides too little current, the battery can’t chip in. In the future, this should be fixed on the board, but the strategy for handling it well isn’t too clear. Ideas?

[edit] I spoke too soon about it being difficult to hack. The physical switch (SW1) cuts power to the step-up converter entirely, so I can tie my little circuit in there.

OK. I just desoldered and gently pulled the EN pin off of its pad and used a single channel inverter to pull it down when there’s USB power and pull it up if not. It’s powered from the USB output.

Easy as cake. Now the Lipo Rider Pro acts like a UPS.

Great Information