Once you’ve developed your Raspberry Pi application there may come a time when you need to disconnect from mains power and let the Pi run free. Now you need to consider hooking up power packs to the RPi environment and everything starts to get a little… untidy and weighty. PiJuice is a neat solution to the problem; it comes in the form of a HAT which stacks onto the RPi and contains a 1400 mAh battery and more, to quote from their Kickstarter page the key features include:

  • Onboard 1400 mAh "off the shelf" Lipo battery (with support for larger Lipo Battery up to 5000 mAH+) to last up to 24 hrs + in constant use!
  • Full UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) solution.
  • Integrated RTC (Real Time Clock)
  • On board intelligent on/off switch 
  • Low power deep-sleep state with wake on interrupt/calendar event
  • Programmable multi-colored RGB led
  • Full power management API available to Raspberry Pi OS with auto shutdown capability when running low on batteries
  • Raspberry Pi HAT compatible layout, with on board EEPROM for easy plug and play operation
  • Low profile design, to fit inside lots of existing Raspberry Pi cases!

PiJuice turns the Raspberry Pi an independent, stand alone platform. By using intelligent power behaviour, the integrated battery will keep itself topped up when plugged in, and supply any extra power needed to the Pi as required.

The real time clock on board will let your Pi know what time it is even with no power input or internet connection. It will also manage soft shut down and a true low power sleep state and intelligent start up from the off state.

You will be able to always keep track of the charge levels with the built in tri-coloured RGB LEDs, and since the PiJuice will use up to just five of your GPIO pins (just power and I2C), the rest are free to diversify your project even more. The stacking header allows you to continue to use your existing HATs and add ons with PiJuice.

Its target retail price will be £25 and with 29 days still to run the product has already attracted almost twice the funding target.