Is 2.4A enough?
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I am using a 2.4A usb charger from an old iPad as a power supply, will that work well with the Raspberry Pi 3 or is it too weak? Thanks in advance.
~Henriko
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@HenrikoMagnifico I used that when I first received my Pi 3, and I'd get low voltage warnings quite frequently and games would slow down, particularly SNES or better. I'd suggest just getting a 3.5A from the start.
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@rogue9607 said in Is 2.4A enough?:
@HenrikoMagnifico I used that when I first received my Pi 3, and I'd get low voltage warnings quite frequently and games would slow down, particularly SNES or better. I'd suggest just getting a 3.5A from the start.
Will 3.5A really work? Isn't more than 2.5A harmful for the device? Also, would a 4.8A usb charger work in that case?
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@HenrikoMagnifico said in Is 2.4A enough?:
@rogue9607 said in Is 2.4A enough?:
@HenrikoMagnifico I used that when I first received my Pi 3, and I'd get low voltage warnings quite frequently and games would slow down, particularly SNES or better. I'd suggest just getting a 3.5A from the start.
Will 3.5A really work? Isn't more than 2.5A harmful for the device? Also, would a 4.8A usb charger work in that case?
Sorry for that typo, I meant 2.5A for mine. I believe the current draw will depend on the device, not the PS until you hit the PS limit. I tried all of the USB chargers I had and couldn't get enough power to the pi. Does your 4.8A charger put that out for a single port or is it 2.4 + 2.4?
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Sorry for that typo, I meant 2.5A for mine. I believe the current draw will depend on the device, not the PS until you hit the PS limit. I tried all of the USB chargers I had and couldn't get enough power to the pi. Does your 4.8A charger put that out for a single port or is it 2.4 + 2.4?
Well, I haven't purchased that charger yet, there's a sale on it and I wondered if I should get it or not. I think it splits the signal, since it has two USB ports.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any USB chargers that give out 2.5A, but only 2.4A or below (at least where I live). I would rather not get the official Raspberry Pi 3 power supply since the cord isn't expandable. Will 0.1A matter much? I currently can't compare the 2.4A adapter I have with a 2.5A one since I don't own one.
I am experiencing stuttering in some games (because of the lack of power maybe?). Would the stuttering decrease if I got a power supply that emitted 2.5A?
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The problem is when under load some PSUs have a voltage drop which causes a problem. Any PSU that can do 2a+ and remain at 5v should be enough. The official one is 5.1v I think.
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@HenrikoMagnifico said in Is 2.4A enough?:
Sorry for that typo, I meant 2.5A for mine. I believe the current draw will depend on the device, not the PS until you hit the PS limit. I tried all of the USB chargers I had and couldn't get enough power to the pi. Does your 4.8A charger put that out for a single port or is it 2.4 + 2.4?
Well, I haven't purchased that charger yet, there's a sale on it and I wondered if I should get it or not. I think it splits the signal, since it has two USB ports.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any USB chargers that give out 2.5A, but only 2.4A or below (at least where I live). I would rather not get the official Raspberry Pi 3 power supply since the cord isn't expandable. Will 0.1A matter much? I currently can't compare the 2.4A adapter I have with a 2.5A one since I don't own one.
I am experiencing stuttering in some games (because of the lack of power maybe?). Would the stuttering decrease if I got a power supply that emitted 2.5A?
Are you seeing a lightning bolt or color wheel icon on the screen when you get the slowdown? That's what I experienced and went away with the 2.5A PS.
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Are you seeing a lightning bolt or color wheel icon on the screen when you get the slowdown? That's what I experienced and went away with the 2.5A PS.
Yes, exactly that! If I now were to purchase a good power supply, which one would you recommend (European standard)?
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@HenrikoMagnifico said in Is 2.4A enough?:
Are you seeing a lightning bolt or color wheel icon on the screen when you get the slowdown? That's what I experienced and went away with the 2.5A PS.
Yes, exactly that! If I now were to purchase a good power supply, which one would you recommend (European standard)?
I just bought a highly rated one from Amazon, but I'm not familiar with similar products for Europe.
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@HenrikoMagnifico Every USB charger rated 2.5+ amp v5 is good. Mine is 2.5a and I never had any problem, most standard USB chargers are 700mA (0.7A)
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@HenrikoMagnifico said in Is 2.4A enough?:
Will 3.5A really work? Isn't more than 2.5A harmful for the device? Also, would a 4.8A usb charger work in that case?
The rating which is labelled on a power supply is the maximum amount of current that it can potentially deliver to the connected device if the connected device requires it, for example processor intensive tasks or driving displays. It doesn't mean that is will push that amount of current through everything that is connected to it. If you have a 2.4A power supply and power the Pi2, it will be fine as the recommended power requirement is 1.8A so you will have 0.6A spare capacity. However, there is no spare capacity if you are powering a Pi3. You are actually 0.1A short which is a problem. Anything could happen including the power supply getting hot as it tries its best to deliver the extra current that it cannot supply. So if you have a charger rated at 4.8A like in your post, you are sorted! I used a 3.5A rated power supply so that I can connect other stuff via USB. People forget that peripherals will draw current from your power supply and this is bad news if you are operating your supply at the maximum rating without any peripherals connected. Power details here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/help/faqs/#powerReqs. I always like to have 0.5A spare capacity on everything. It makes for a cool happy power pack that is always willing and eager to throw out some more juice if needed.
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The rating which is labelled on a power supply is the maximum amount of current that it can potentially deliver to the connected device if the connected device requires it, for example processor intensive tasks or driving displays. It doesn't mean that is will push that amount of current through everything that is connected to it. If you have a 2.4A power supply and power the Pi2, it will be fine as the recommended power requirement is 1.8A so you will have 0.6A spare capacity. However, there is no spare capacity if you are powering a Pi3. You are actually 0.1A short which is a problem. Anything could happen including the power supply getting hot as it tries its best to deliver the extra current that it cannot supply. So if you have a charger rated at 4.8A like in your post, you are sorted! I used a 3.5A rated power supply so that I can connect other stuff via USB. People forget that peripherals will draw current from your power supply and this is bad news if you are operating your supply at the maximum rating without any peripherals connected. Power details here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/help/faqs/#powerReqs. I always like to have 0.5A spare capacity on everything. It makes for a cool happy power pack that is always willing and eager to throw out some more juice if needed.
Thanks for the info! I found this USB charger which outputs 4.8A as said previously - will it be enough even though it has two USB ports (I will only use one of them)? Will it split the current like discussed earlier or will it output more of it to the Raspberry Pi?
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@HenrikoMagnifico I have a brick similar to what you describe but I have 4 usb ports on it. It is rated at 4.5A. This means that inside my cabinet, I can power the pi comfortably with joypads, keyboard and an ipac decoder. I also have another for charging things like phones and kindles at the same time. As long as your current draw across all devices doesn't exceed the rating of the charging device, you will be fine. No need to worry about how the current is shared. Your devices will only draw a maximum as described on their case. E.g. This keyboard I'm on is 70mA, so only 0.07A out of the 4.5A available. Look on the back of devices, usually printed on. A charger can never output more than a device needs so don't worry.
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@rbaker said in Is 2.4A enough?:
@HenrikoMagnifico I have a brick similar to what you describe but I have 4 usb ports on it. It is rated at 4.5A. This means that inside my cabinet, I can power the pi comfortably with joypads, keyboard and an ipac decoder. I also have another for charging things like phones and kindles at the same time. As long as your current draw across all devices doesn't exceed the rating of the charging device, you will be fine. No need to worry about how the current is shared. Your devices will only draw a maximum as described on their case. E.g. This keyboard I'm on is 70mA, so only 0.07A out of the 4.5A available. Look on the back of devices, usually printed on. A charger can never output more than a device needs so don't worry.
Thanks for the help, I will purchase the USB charger I talked about earlier :)
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