Introduction

The UPS HAT (E) is an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) expansion board specially designed for the Raspberry Pi series. Onboard battery meter chip, fast-charging chip, and high-power buck chip which can provide high-power input and output as well as monitor the operating state of the module via the I2C interface.

Feature

• Adopts pogo pins connector design, compatible with Raspberry Pi 5/4B/3B+.
• Onboard Type-C port with bi-directional fast charging, supports multiple charging input / output protocols such as PD3.0, up to 40W charging power.
• Onboard battery fuel gauge IC for reading battery voltage, current, power, remaining capacity and other parameters.
• Supports I2C bus communication for monitoring the operating status of Type-C port and batteries in real time.
• Supports 4× 21700 Li batteries (NOT included), larger capacity and longer battery life.
• Onboard high-power buck chip for stable 5V 6A power output.
• Onboard MCU management, supports detecting power connection and booting the Raspberry Pi.
• Supports displaying battery level on the system, easy to check the operating state of the HAT.
• Comes with online development resources and manuals.

Specification

• OUTPUT VOLTAGE: 5V
• CONTROL BUS: I2C
• RECHARGING BATTERY: bidirectional input/output protocol, support up to 40W
• OUTPUT POWER: 5V 6A
• BATTERY SPECIFICATION: 21700 RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES 3.6V
• CURRENT CAPACITY: 5000mAh (Standard)
• DIMENSIONS: 56mm × 88mm
• MOUNTING HOLE SIZE: 3.0mm

Onboard Interface

Hardware Description

The USB Type C interface is the bidirectional recharging interface and supports recharging and output with a maximum power of 40W. USB Type A interface is the 5V output interface, the LED is the fast-recharging indicator and turns on when it is in the fast recharging state. 0FF/ON is the power switch silkscreen.
Note 1: Do not charge when the battery is connected reversely. Reversing the battery connection may damage the battery protection chip.
Note 2: When assembling the battery, please follow the V1-V2-V3-V4 order to install. Otherwise, the reverse connection may turn on the warning indicator. The disassembled battery needs to be connected to the charger to charge in order to activate the output.
Note 3: After replacing the battery, it needs to complete several full charge/discharge cycles, so that the chip automatically calculates the battery parameters, and the capacitance is more accurate.
Note 4: The actual output current of the module can be up to 10A, due to heat dissipation reasons, it is recommended that the use of no more than 6A, and the use of larger currents should be added to the active cooling.
Note 5: Due to the battery type and temperature effects, the battery capacity may be inaccurate, to determine whether the voltage is charged or not should be based on voltage values.

Raspberry Pi Demo

Enable I2C Interface

• Open the Raspberry Pi terminal and input the following commands to enter the configuration interface:

sudo raspi-config 
Select Interfacing Options -> I2C -> yes to enable i2C kernel driver

And then reboot the Raspberry Pi:

sudo reboot

INA219 Baterry Level Detection

To demonstrate this demo on the Raspberry Pi, you only need to insert the module into the Raspberry Pi headers or connect it to the I2C interface of the Raspberry Pi via a cable with VCC connected to 3.3V.
Enter the following command to run the demo:

sudo apt-get install p7zip
wget https://files.waveshare.com/wiki/UPS-HAT-(E)/UPS_HAT_E.7z
7zr x UPS_HAT_E.7z -r -o./
cd UPS_HAT_E
python3 ups.py

The demo will output values such as battery voltage, current, power and the remaining battery capacity percentage after it runs.

The negative VBUS current value indicates type-c output current and the positive one indicates input current. If the battery current is negative, it indicates the battery output current (which can be the Raspberry Pi load current), and if the battery current is positive, it indicates the battery charging current.
When the system load is high and the battery voltage is low, it is undesirable to see that the battery current may be insufficient, leading to continuous system restarts. In practical applications, you can prevent this by shutting down the system automatically when the battery voltage is too low.
In the example demo, battery voltage checking has been added. If the battery voltage is too low and there is no external charging power, the demo will shut down the system within 60 seconds.
The demo will display the following statement to indicate that the battery voltage is too low, and it is necessary to charge it promptly, otherwise, the demo will shut down automatically:

Voltage Low, please charge in time, otherwise, it will shut down in 58 s

Battery Level Display

Open the terminal and execute:

cd ~/UPS_HAT_E
DISPLAY=':0.0' python3 batteryTray.py

Run the demo to display the upper right corner of the battery logo. If it does not display and the demo does not report errors, you should check the I2C interface and the installation of libraries.

After reboot the battery logo appears in the upper right corner indicating that the setup is successful, mouse over the battery icon position will show the battery level, voltage and charge.
When the battery level drops below 5%, a low battery warning will appear. After 60 seconds, it will power off automatically.

If it has no effects, you can test as below:

cd ~/UPS_HAT_E
./main.sh   #Do not add "sudo"
sudo reboot

Raspberry Pi 5 Set 5A Current

The Raspberry Pi 5 will detect the PD protocol at Type-C interface, and it will limit the current to 3A if the protocol is not detected and display the following prompts:

Run the following commands to open "eeprom" to edit:

sudo rpi-eeprom-config --edit

Add the following settings to remove the 3A current limit, and provide 5A current.

PSU_MAX_CURRENT=5000

Boot When Power Applied

When a low voltage is detected, you can use a demo to control the Raspberry Pi to save data before shutting down, thereby avoiding data loss due to sudden power loss.
However, after the Raspberry Pi shuts down while still powered, it will not automatically restart when power is applied again. But you can enable this function through I2C setting.
To detect I2C addresses, open the terminal and execute the following command.

i2cdetect -y 1

0x2D is the I2C address of IMU chip. Run the following commands, you can check the register values, and the corresponding values of registers with the addresses 0x00, 0x01 respectively are 0x0a and 0x0b.

After changing the value of the 0x01 register to 0x55, the MCU will disconnect the Raspberry Pi power supply after 30s, and detect the charging port after 60s. If it is charged, it will automatically reboot the Raspberry Pi.
Run the following commands to set the 0x01 register as 0x55.

i2cset -y 1 0x2d 0x01 0x55

Note 1: The Raspberry Pi needs to be turned off immediately after setting 0x01 to 0x55, otherwise, the data may get lost after it powers off in 30s.
Note 2: The start when power applied function has been added to the sample demo.

Resource

Document

• Register Manual

Demo Code

• Demo

FAQ

sudo apt-get install i2c-tools

sudo i2cdetect -y 1

usb_max_current_enable=1 

Support