Geekworm for Raspberry Pi UPS, X728 (Max 5.1V 6A) UPS & Power Management Board with AC Power Loss Detection|Auto Power On|Safe Shutdown|Battery Capacity Reading|Low Battery Auto Shutdown|Buzzer

I don’t usually write reviews, but I felt compelled to with this product. There is an abundance of documentation that you can reference, which made the setup process incredibly easy. Every aspect of this UPS is well thought out, and it’s refreshing to use a product that is so well designed after being disappointed by the product offerings in the past.

I bought this for my RPI to power it through blackouts, and it works really great. I tested it and it lasted over 24 hours with six 18650 batteries. Recently I was having problems with it rebooting randomly and the customer service was very responsive and helpful! As others have mentioned I do wish it was possible to dim the LEDs via software or switches, but I have a packet of Light Dims which work okay.

The Raspberry Pi is a great piece of hardware, but it does not have a way to power on and off using hardware. Turning off power without proper shutdown runs the risk of corrupting the SD card. I needed reliable power management for several Raspberry Pi's running OctoPrint, a media control server and security server. I could not find a working system. In frustration, I had resigned myself to building my own system using an Arduino. That involved writing a bunch of C++ code, as well as designing and ordering my own printed circuit boards. Doable, but not a lot of fun. That's where the X728 system comes in. It does power management well but also includes a battery backup using 18650 lithium batteries. It's a hat, so it plugs in on top of the Raspberry Pi. Standoffs and screws are included so you can securely mount the hat on your Raspberry Pi. It has connectors for a lighted power switch and additional lithium batteries.Instructions are available on the GeekWorm web site. There is a script that needs to be downloaded and then run. It installs several scripts on the Raspberry Pi. You run a few commands to register startup and shutdown scripts. About 15 minutes work and it's done. Easy peasy.My first X728 V2.1 had a problem. It would not shut down. I purchased several X728 V2.1 boards, so it was easy to swap boards. Yep, the first board was defective. GeekWorm tech support was awesome so I'm only knocking one star off.This is the best Raspberry Pi power management solution I have found. Being able to safely control power is essential. The addition of battery backup for critical servers is HUGE!I wish GeekWorm had better quality control, but support is quite responsive. Support is based in China so there is a 24-hour delay to get a response. They start with very basic questions, so it takes a few iterations to find a solution.Update: I have purchased several more X-728 boards and almost each one has problems. Connectors not soldered on, boards that do not work, the list goes on. I want to love this board. I really do. But if you purchase one, resign yourself to dealing with Geekworm's quality control issues. Too bad, because there is a lot to like about this board.

Works great, only problems are setting up the raspberry pi on the software side for non Raspbian OS images. I had to buy another fan since GeekWorm doesn't supply a fan for the Pi 3B that fits with this <See GeekPi Pi4/3B Fan>. I'm glad to see they have the big red warnings on the wiki to watch the safety video by LG. I will make sure my 18650 batteries stay safe. Please advise, do NOT buy any Amazon sold 18650 batteries that come with a charger, they are mostly not safe and cheaply made. Don't want to blow the pi up. Please update the wikis and software for Cron.

Using the included 2.5 x 20 mm standoffs created an initially annoying problem. The 40 pin header extenders I have were about 6 mm too long, making the UPS float way above the Pi and preventing the stackup from fitting in the Geekworm metal case. I first trimmed down the pins on the header extender. That didn't get the UPS board low enough to fit in the metal case. I finally trimmed down the plastic on the header extender, that dropped the UPS by another 2 mm and solved the problem. Nowhere do they mention that a non-standard-height 40-pin header is required to get the stackup to work in the case. That was kind of annoying.Second annoyance is the "ac power" input. Where/what is this? The UPS board doesn't take ac power. So I'm guessing that it's the 5521 jack?As well, why would that jack be rated for only 5 Vdc? This should be designed to take a wide voltage range (10-30 Vdc would be great) that that I could power it in the truck without having to custom build yet another 12 to 5.1 stepdown converter.Other than these significant annoyances the UPS seems to work fine. I haven't yet installed the software to enable the autoshutdown feature. Since this is for the truck, I appreciate a UPS to prevent glitches getting to the RPi.

The offset pins are idiotic at best. The power button constantly bounces and turns the thing back on over and over. And when I tried to use the 4 pin switch, it turned out that wasn't even soldered into the board. I wish I worked on this during the return period.