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Troubleshooting

This page helps you diagnose PiPower 5 issues using the onboard LEDs, buzzer, and software tools. Start with the quick reference tables below, then follow the symptom-based guides for detailed steps.

LED & Buzzer Quick Reference 

Before diving into specific symptoms, use these tables to interpret what the board is telling you.

Power & Status LEDs 

LED	State	What It Means
PWR LED (green)	ON	Output power is active — the board is supplying 5V to your device.
	OFF	Output is off. Press the power button once to turn it on.
BAT LED (yellow)	ON	Battery is currently supplying power. If external power is connected, this indicates insufficient input power.
	OFF	Battery is in standby — external power is sufficient.
Reverse Battery LEDs (2× red)	ON (both)	Battery polarity is reversed! Disconnect immediately and correct the wiring.

Battery Level LEDs 

LED Pattern	Meaning
4 LEDs lit	Battery > 80%
3 LEDs lit	Battery 60% – 80%
2 LEDs lit	Battery 40% – 60%
1 LED lit	Battery 20% – 40%
First LED flashing	Battery < 20% — charge soon
LEDs cycling sequentially	Charging in progress
Middle two LEDs flashing	Waiting for shutdown signal from Raspberry Pi
All LEDs off	Board unpowered or in sleep mode

Note

Battery LEDs remain active during charging even when the board is in the off state. They turn off only when charging is complete.

Buzzer Signals 

If the buzzer is enabled, these sounds indicate specific events:

Event	Typical Sound	What It Means
`battery_activated`	Two ascending tones	Battery has taken over power supply (external power lost or insufficient).
`low_battery`	Two repeated tones of same pitch	Battery level has fallen below the configured shutdown percentage. Charge immediately.
`power_disconnected`	High tone → low tone	External power was disconnected. System is now running on battery.
`power_restored`	Low tone → high tone	External power was restored. Battery is no longer discharging.
`power_insufficient`	Three rapid tones of same pitch	External power is connected but too weak. Battery is supplementing. Check your power adapter.
`battery_critical_shutdown`	Three rapid descending tones	Battery capacity critically low. System will shut down.
`battery_voltage_critical_shutdown`	Four rapid descending tones	Battery voltage critically low (failsafe). System will shut down immediately.

Tip

If you never hear buzzer sounds, the buzzer may be disabled or its volume set to 0. Run pipower5 -bzv to check the current volume, or test with pipower5 -bzt low_battery.

Symptom-Based Diagnosis 

“No Power” — All LEDs Off, No Output 

What you see: PWR LED off, battery LEDs off, connected device shows no power.

Check these, in order:

Is the battery installed? PiPower 5 cannot operate without a battery. Ensure the battery connector (XH2.54 3P) is firmly seated. See Battery Connector.
Is the battery completely drained? A deeply discharged battery (< 2.5V per cell) enters trickle-charge mode and may not power the board for several minutes.
- Connect external power and wait 10–15 minutes.
- If battery LEDs remain off after 15 minutes, the battery may be defective.
Is external power connected correctly?
- Use a USB-C PD power supply (5V–15V) or DC power via the screw terminals.
- Ensure the USB-C cable supports power delivery — some data-only cables will not work.
- Try a different power adapter and cable.
Press the power button once. PiPower 5 requires a button press to activate output, unless the Default ON jumper is set.
Check the Default ON jumper. See Default ON/OFF Jumper. - Jumper on ON: Output activates automatically when external power is connected. - Jumper on OFF: You must press the power button each time.
Check for reverse battery installation. If both red LEDs near the battery connector are lit, the battery polarity is reversed. Power off immediately, disconnect the battery, and reconnect with correct polarity. See Battery Connector.

“BAT LED Always On” — External Power Seems Insufficient 

What you see: External power is connected, but the BAT LED remains lit. The battery is discharging despite external power being present.

What this means: The external power supply cannot meet the total power demand. The battery is supplementing the shortfall.

Check these, in order:

Is your power adapter powerful enough? The formula is: Adapter wattage ≥ Raspberry Pi power (~20–25W) + Charging power (set via DIP switch).
- Raspberry Pi 5 under load can draw > 25W.
- If charging power is set to 20W (both DIP switches ON), you need a 45W+ adapter.
- For a 30W adapter, reduce charging power to 10W or 5W.
Check the DIP switch (charging power selector). See the charging power table in Power Input. Lower the charging power if your adapter is underpowered.
Try a different USB-C cable. Not all cables support USB PD at higher wattages. Use the cable that came with your power adapter.
Check the adapter’s PD profile. Some adapters advertise high wattage but only on specific voltage/current combinations. PiPower 5 requires a PD-compliant supply. Non-PD adapters (e.g., fixed 5V-only) may not provide enough current.
For screw terminal input, ensure input voltage is ≥ 9V for optimal performance. See Power Input for the voltage-to-current limits.

“PWR LED Off” — Device Not Receiving Power 

What you see: Battery LEDs are on (board has power), but PWR LED is off and the connected device won’t boot.

Check these:

Press the power button once. The board has power but output is not enabled.
Is the GPIO header properly seated? If using a Raspberry Pi, remove and re-seat the PiPower 5 HAT. Check for bent pins or debris in the header.
Try an alternative output. Connect a device to the USB-A port or the 2x4P header. If these work, the issue is with the GPIO passthrough.

“Device Keeps Shutting Down Unexpectedly”

What you see: Raspberry Pi or connected device shuts down without warning.

Check these:

Check the shutdown percentage. Run pipower5 -sp. If it is set high (e.g., 50% or more), the board will trigger a shutdown early. Set a lower value if needed:
```
pipower5 -sp 10
sudo systemctl restart pipower5.service
```
Check if the battery is actually discharging.
Run pipower5 -a and look at:
- source: Should be “0 - External” when external power is connected.
- battery current: Negative = charging, positive = discharging.
For Raspberry Pi 5 with high-power peripherals (SSD, HATs): Consider setting pipower5 -sp 100 to trigger immediate safe shutdown when external power is lost. See PiPower 5 Tool.
Check the power adapter. If power_insufficient events are triggered (buzzer or log), the adapter is too weak. Upgrade to a higher-wattage supply or lower the charging power DIP switch.

“Battery Not Charging”

What you see: External power connected, but battery LEDs do not show the charging animation (sequential cycling).

Check these:

Is the battery already full? 4 solid LEDs = battery > 80%. The charging circuit may have stopped because the battery is full or in the constant-voltage taper phase.
Check charging status via software. Run pipower5 -ichg. If it returns False, the board reports it is not charging. Check pipower5 -bp for the current battery percentage.
Over-temperature protection active. If the board has been under heavy load in a warm environment, the charging chip may have exceeded 125°C and halted charging. Let the board cool down and try again.
Input voltage too low via screw terminals. If using screw terminals with voltage ≤ 6.5V, the charging current is limited. Use ≥ 9V for reliable charging.
Check the battery health. A battery that never reaches full charge or charges very slowly may have degraded cells. Try a different compatible battery (7.4V 2-cell Li-ion, XH2.54 3P).

“I2C Communication Fails” — pipower5 Command Returns Errors 

What you see: Running pipower5 -a produces an error or no data.

Check these:

Is I2C enabled on the Raspberry Pi? Run sudo raspi-config → Interface Options → I2C → Enable.
Is the I2C device detected?
```
sudo i2cdetect -y 1
```
PiPower 5 should appear at address 0x5a. If no device shows up:
- Reseat the HAT on the GPIO header.
- Check that i2c-dev is loaded: lsmod | grep i2c.
- Verify dtparam=i2c_arm=on is in /boot/firmware/config.txt.
Is the `pipower5` service running?
```
sudo systemctl status pipower5.service
```
If inactive, start it: sudo systemctl start pipower5.service.
Multiple I2C devices conflict? PiPower 5 uses I2C address 0x5a. Check that no other HAT or device is using this address. See Pin Headers for RPi.
Reboot. Sometimes a cold restart of both the Raspberry Pi and PiPower 5 resolves I2C bus issues. Power off completely, wait 10 seconds, then power on.

“Buzzer Silent” — No Sound on Events 

What you see: Events occur (power disconnect, low battery, etc.) but no buzzer sound.

Check these:

Check buzzer volume.
```
pipower5 -bzv
```
If it returns 0, the buzzer is muted. Set a volume (1–10):
```
pipower5 -bzv 5
sudo systemctl restart pipower5.service
```
Check which events have buzzer enabled.
```
pipower5 -bzo
```
Ensure the event you expect is in the list. To add an event:
```
pipower5 -bzo low_battery,power_disconnected
```
Test the buzzer directly.
```
pipower5 -bzt low_battery
```
If you hear sound, the buzzer hardware is working — the issue is with event configuration.

“Raspberry Pi Shows Low Voltage Warning”

What you see: The Raspberry Pi desktop or dmesg shows under-voltage warnings.

This is expected behavior in some cases:

When powering a Raspberry Pi from the PiPower 5 USB-A port (instead of the GPIO header), the Pi may report a non-PD power supply warning. This can be safely ignored.
If using the GPIO header and still seeing warnings, the PiPower 5 output may be under heavy load. Check the total current draw of your setup.

Check these:

Run pipower5 -a and check Output: voltage. It should be stable around 5.2–5.3V. If it drops below 5.0V under load, total current draw may exceed the 5A limit.
Disconnect non-essential USB peripherals and re-test.
If the issue persists, the DC-DC converter may be faulty. Contact support.

Software Diagnostic Commands 

The pipower5 CLI tool is your primary diagnostic interface. Here are the most useful commands:

Command	What It Tells You
`pipower5 -a`	Complete status snapshot: input/output voltage, battery state, charging status, shutdown request, button state.
`pipower5 -bp`	Battery percentage.
`pipower5 -ichg`	Whether the battery is currently charging (`True` / `False`).
`pipower5 -ii`	Whether external power is connected.
`pipower5 -sp`	Current shutdown percentage threshold.
`pipower5 -sr`	Current shutdown request status (0 = None, 1 = Low Battery, 2 = Button).
`pipower5 -pb`	Current power button state.
`pipower5 -bzv`	Current buzzer volume.
`pipower5 -fv`	Firmware version (verify you’re on the latest).
`pipower5 -c`	Full configuration dump.
`pipower5 -pfs 60`	Run a 60-second power failure simulation to test battery runtime.
`sudo systemctl status pipower5.service`	Check if the PiPower 5 background service is running.
`cat /opt/pipower5/log`	View service logs for error messages.

Tip

For a quick health check, run pipower5 -a and verify:

shutdown request is 0 - NONE (no pending shutdown).
battery percentage is above your shutdown percentage.
Output: voltage is between 5.1V and 5.4V.

Still Having Issues?

If none of the above resolves your problem, collect the following information before contacting support:

System information:
```
pipower5 -a
pipower5 -fv
pipower5 -c
```

Service logs:

cat /opt/pipower5/log
sudo journalctl -u pipower5.service --no-pager -n 100

Hardware details:
- Raspberry Pi model
- Power adapter model and rated wattage
- Battery type and age
- PiPower 5 DIP switch settings
- SDSIG and Default ON jumper positions