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Can I damage or even kill a sbc if I use a power supply with a lower amperage than what is recommended/expected by the manufacturers? (self.raspberrypi)

submitted 11 months ago by GustavoM to c/[email protected]

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Title. In other words, sbc recommended/optimal power supply is 5V4A but I use an 5V3A instead -- will it damage or kill the sbc? The reasoning behind this is "an direct undervolting towards the system, for lower power draw and temps".

Thanks in advance.

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[–] owenfromcanada 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's partly determined by the power supply you're using. When you try to draw more power, what does it put out? How good is the voltage leveling? Etc.

I'd say you're not likely to permanently damage anything, other than maybe your data (if power were interrupted during a critical operation). Most likely you'd just see it resetting when it tries to draw more power, or you'll have wifi problems.

But with 3A, you might not have any issues at all if you don't have a lot of peripherals attached.

[–] GustavoM 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

When you try to draw more power, what does it put out? How good is the voltage leveling?

As someone who doesn't have any technical devices to measure such, is there a software/command for proper power draw measurement? That aside, I've switched a 5V3A power supply for a 5V1.5A charger (on a 5v3A recommended device) and everything looks good so far (even if chargers aren't recommended afaik). That aside, thank you for your input.

[–] owenfromcanada 2 points 11 months ago

It's hard to measure without some heavy equipment. A good indicator is where the charger came from--a cheap and light brick from AliExpress with a brand you've never heard of is probably going to be worse than an official RPi brick from AdaFruit or something.

As long as your device isn't drawing more than the 3A, it'll probably be fine.