I did a couple more load tests with the LiFePO4wered/Pi3, the variant that uses the #LiFePO4wered/18650 as a charging base (and should be for sale very soon now). A lot of people seem to have applications where they want to use a Pi 3, use the LiFePO4wered/Pi as UPS, and also plug in a USB flash drive. Since flash drives are power hogs, I decided I should test some scenarios with a flash drive plugged in. So here are a couple of tests I did, with the LiFePO4wered/Pi3 charging from a 2A USB charger:
- Pi 3, 4 cores @ 100%, ssh connection with a WiFi USB dongle (the built-in WiFi on my Pi 3 died), USB flash drive plugged in: slowly discharges (the system consumes more than the 1.33 A charge current).
- Pi 3, 3 cores @ 100%, ssh connection with a WiFi USB dongle, USB flash drive plugged in: charges!
- Pi 3, 4 cores @ 100%, ssh connection over Ethernet, USB flash drive plugged in: charges! :)
I'm quite happy with these results. Systems running at 100% CPU continuously are very unusual. Using a WiFi USB dongle on a Pi 3 is very unlikely as well (unless breaking that silly flip chip without any protective packaging is common, which wouldn't be too surprising). I'm certain the on-board WiFi uses less power than a WiFi USB dongle, so I'm pretty confident that scenario with the CPU @ 100% will work as well. I really should get myself another Pi 3 some time so I can test it.
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