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Powering your Pioreactor cluster

Powering your Pioreactor​

Each Pioreactor requires a Raspberry Pi, so you'll need to provide power to each Raspberry Pi. For small clusters, this can be accomplished by buying individual power supply units that connect from the wall or power-bar to each Raspberry Pi. We really like the official Raspberry Pi Power Supply, available at most places you can purchase a Raspberry Pi. In general, look for 5V and at least 2.25 A (or atleast 12 W).

Powering 2 to ~6 Pioreactors​

Individual PSUs don't scale very well, so below are some other options for powering many Pioreactors with a single PSU.

You can purchase USB hubs from sites like Amazon. They may look something like below:

Example of a USB hub with 6 ports

Important: use the following guidelines before making a purchase.

  • Advertised max wattage: each Pioreactor requires up to 15 W, so [number of Pioreactors] * 15 W should be less than the max wattage (plus some extra).
  • Wattage per port: Make sure each port can supply at least 15 W. Do not get 5V 1A power supplies.
  • Connection type: Raspberry Pis models have different power connectors. RPi 4 and 5 use USB-C, and everything else uses microUSB. You may need to purchase USB-C to microUSB wires.
  • Speaking of the wires from the PSU to the Raspberry Pi: make them as short as possible. Longer cables increase resistance, leading to unnecessary power loss.

More than ~6 Pioreactors and beyond​

For more than 6 Pioreactors, we recommend looking into more reputable and reliable power supply units. We have seen the following model in action and can recommend it:

Generally, for any power supply, the same ideas apply as above: look for at minimum 15 W per output. Also look for certifications and over heating protection.