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

by Adafruit

PowerBoost 500C is the perfect power supply for your portable project!

With a built-in battery charger circuit, you'll be able to keep your project running even while recharging the battery!

  • This little DC/DC boost converter module can be powered by any 3.7V LiIon/LiPoly battery, and convert the battery output to 5.2V DC for running your 5V projects.
  • output tweaked to be 5.2V instead of a straight-up 5.0V so that there's a little bit of 'headroom' for long cables, high draw, the addition of a diode on the output if you wish, etc.
  • The 5.2V is safe for all 5V-powered electronics like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or Beagle Bone while preventing icky brown-outs during high current draw because of USB cable resistance. 

The PowerBoost 500C has at the heart a TPS61090 boost converter from TI. This boost converter chip has some really nice extras such as low battery detection, 2A internal switch, synchronous conversion, excellent efficiency, and 700KHz high-frequency operation. Check out these specs!

  • Synchronous operation means you can disconnect the output completely by connecting the ENable pin to ground. This will completely turn off the output
  • 2A internal switch (~2.5A peak limiting) means you can get 500mA+ from a 3.7V LiPoly/LiIon battery. We had no problem drawing 1000mA, just make sure your battery can handle it!
  • Low battery indicator LED lights up red when the voltage dips below 3.2V, optimized for LiPo/LiIon battery usage
  • Onboard 500mA charge-rate 'iOS' data resistors. Solder in the USB connector and you can plug in any iPhone or iPod for 500mA charge rate. Not suggested for large iPads.
  • Full breakout for battery in, control pins and power out
  • 90%+ operating efficiency in most cases (see datasheet for efficiency graphs), and low quiescent current: 5mA when enabled and power LED is on, 20uA when disabled (power and low batt LED are off)

To make this even more useful, Adafruit stuck a MicroLipo charger on the other side. The charger circuitry is powered from a microUSB jack, and will recharge any 3.7V/4.2V LiIon or LiPoly battery at 500mA max rate. There's two LEDs for monitoring the charge rate, a yellow one tells you its working, a green one lights up when its done. You can charge and boost at the same time no problem, without any interruption on the output so its fine for use as a "UPS" (un-interruptable power supply). Just be aware that the charge rate is 500mA max, so if you're drawing more than ~300mA continuously from the 5V output side, the battery will slowly drain since the charge rate is less than the dis-charge rate. You do have to always have a LiPo plugged into manage the load spikes, it's not optional!

Each order comes with one fully assembled and tested PCB and a loose USB A jack. If you are powering your project from USB, solder the USB A jack in (a 3-minute soldering task). If you would like to use a terminal block, you'll need to solder a 3.5mm 2pin block (not included) to the output spot where the USB jack would go. Or don't solder anything in for a more compact power pack.

You can also solder a switch in to create an output on/off switch!

Each order comes with a fully assembled and tested PowerBoost 500C + USB jack. Does not come with a Lipoly or LiIon battery, just pick one with more than 500mAh of capacity. Also doesn't come with the nice iPhone or charger cable.  Be sure to read Adafruits lovely tutorial for details, schematics, and more!

 

438 customer reviews

2 days ago
Very good pi useful update on previous models and much faster versatile piece of equipment
by Hugh about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
4 days ago
The extra power and connectivity of the Pi 5 has not disappointed.
by Paul about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
5 days ago
In my opinion, the 2GB version of the Pi 5 has the perfect balance of price, compatibility and features. I have one running a home assistant server and another as a decoration piece running shaders on a HyperPixel 4.0 display. You don't need more RAM than 2GB for most applications. Also the CPU and GPU performance compared to Pi 4 is so much better, that for my use cases the older model is not worth the discounted price.
by Lauri about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
6 days ago
Used with NVME storage via PCI interface. Great performance yet it only sips power. There is an amazing range of accessories for a SBC. The star of the show though is Raspberry Pi OS that has been well supported by Raspberry Pi for many years, ensuring that the bits I have bought have a long life.
by Anonymous about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
6 days ago
Last Raspberry Pi I tried was the 3B+ and the difference with the 5 is huge (especially with 8gb RAM). Weirdly enough, it was cheaper to buy it at Pimoroni and import it to the other side of the world, rather than buying it here!
by EDGAR about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
12 days ago
Compared to previous versions, this one is more powerful and works perfectly, Uning it as a linux box to program a Lego mindstorm unit, it is quick in compilation and I have not issue with it.
by Gordon about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
19 days ago
The Pi 5 is amazing, lightning fast and (with the official fan kit) super cool. It's a shame that some of the connectors are a bit fiddly and easily broken, but that's more down to the size of the Pi itself. Take care and go gentle with connecting everything up!
by Gary about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Everything is totally fine. I'm perfectly happy. The pi is working well in is place already.
by Martin about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Compact, excellent, faster than Pi4 which is what we needed
by Katherine about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
16GB is worth it, nice small and well build as per quality. a good replacement for a legacy i3 notebook machine to reduce size and power demand with the increased productivity for Home Assistant. Hardware is good and most impartant is the software and comunity documentation and support post purchase.
by Vladimir about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Excellent performance with Raspberry Pi os. Not so good with Ubuntu and Android, both not working.
by STEVE about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
It is really good and more powerful than I expected it to be.
by Cagdas about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
It's my first RPi, so it's all new to me. But so far I've figured out how to get it up and running and access it from my windows laptop. Lots more tinkering to come. Love it! Delivery was fast and everything in working order.
by Justin about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Can never have enough RAM, this 16G was also the D0 stepping.
by Anonymous about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
The 16GB RPi 5 works well as a lab desktop with the NVMe underpants but unfortunately the Pimoroni crew Still Haven’t made a case to suit!
by Nick about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
It's small and mighty, runs everything I want at a bargain price. Best PI so far!
by Doug about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Wow. Had Pi 3b+ for years. For experiments etc. until I bricked it somehow :-(. Well this is amazing the speed is incredible. Cheers people. You will know doubt hear from me again.
by Martin about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Huge improvement performance wise over the Pi 1B I have been using for far too long now.
by Anonymous about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Loving this little powerhouse! My 2nd Pi5 .. this one to go into a Picar-X to dabble with robotics/AI and so on.
by Kim about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Well I'm actually still evaluating. So far, I'm impressed. I have a 512gb m.2 on the Pimoroni interface HAT. I installed this on the back of the New monitor and am trying to reduce the volume of cables. So far, I'm very impressed.
by THOMAS about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
a month ago
Trying out the latest. Really great at what i am trying to achieve
by Dave about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
2 months ago
Whata great bit of kit - have several Pi3+ but this is a great step up in terms of performance. Happily running my full media server (emby) and will slowly migrate other tasks to it too
by Stephen about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
2 months ago
I've had a couple of these and built retro gaming images to use with the 8gb version which I gave to friends. This time I tried the 4gb version and there's been no difference with performance for gaming via batocera so all good 👌🏻
by Ian about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
3 months ago
This has been bought as a gift for my husband. He actually recommended buying from here - always good to have a recommendation ! Gift is wrapped for Christmas so not used yet.
by Gillian about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io
3 months ago
FASTTTT!! Compared to previous gen I have in the form of Pi400, there's a day and night difrerence. PCI-e and nvme with Argon NEO 5 M.2 NVME PCIE Case makes it very nice kit. I had to go max, 8 gigs, and my containers chug away without Pi5 breaking a sweat. Disclaimer: i'm a sucker for Pi Foundation products, so i'm massively biased :)
by Tarmo about Raspberry Pi 5 via REVIEWS.io

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