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Scally-H / RedReactor

Sample code for the Raspberry Pi Red Reactor UPS and technical documentation
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The RedReactor

Hi!

Welcome to the sample code and documentation for the Red Reactor, the ultimate battery power supply for all your Raspberry Pi projects.

Our Kickstarter campaign has now finished, and we have completed shipping nearly a thousand units to all our backers! We are live with an order form in case you missed our campaign or would like to order more units, please check our website at https://www.theredreactor.com/ - and check out our reviews page at https://www.theredreactor.com/reviews/

But you can still see the story of our campaign journey on our Kickstarter page, which also shows customer comments and our technology updates.

The Red Reactor Raspberry Pi 18650 UPS

The Red Reactor is designed to fit underneath your Raspberry Pi, leaving the 40-pin header free for all the sensors, displays and other gadgets that you want to use in your projects. With ultra-low stand-by power, and seamless transition even at high currents between the battery and external power, it ensures your data is safe and your design just keeps on working. A wide range of features enable you to quickly create a robust system, including accurate access to the battery voltage and current, simple ON button integration and RUN/RESET support, battery protection and carefully managed charging circuitry to maximise battery life.

The RedReactor_BatteryInfo.py file shows you how to run a background task to monitor the battery voltage. It also measures current (and determines if a charger is attached) and sets a shutdown flag when reaching a user specified minimum voltage, that you can use to force a system shutdown

Installing the required libraries

To run the RedReactor_Batteryinfo.py file you will first need to install the INA219 library (python3):

sudo pip3 install pi-ina219

Please remember to enable the I2C bus under the Advanced Options of raspi-config or via the GUI, as documented in the Red Reactor instruction manual (you will need to reboot the Pi for this to take effect).

(You can find more information about this library for your own code at https://github.com/chrisb2/pi_ina219 )
Please note that for Pi Bookworm OS you'll need a few extra steps to install INA219, please see https://www.theredreactor.com/2023/11/05/pi-bookworm/

To run the RedReactor_Button.py file you will first need to install the GPIO-Zero library (python3):

sudo apt install python3-gpiozero

(for help with these libraries please visit their respective sites)

Installation of example code

After installing the above libraries, type the following if you don't have these github files yet:

  cd
  git clone https://github.com/Scally-H/RedReactor
  cd RedReactor

Or if you just want to update the files, type:

  cd ~/RedReactor
  git pull

Running the example code

Use the RedReactor_Button.py file to show you how to use the button input, and detect short, medium and long presses:

  python3 RedReactor_Button.py

To see the battery voltage and current consumption, type:

  python3 RedReactor_BatteryInfo.py

Full documentation is provided by the Red Reactor Manual.pdf, which includes Raspberry Pi configuration instructions.

Our LXDE GUI battery widget

It is available from https://github.com/Scally-H/pi-battery-widget and autostarts itself perfectly into your widget taskbar, showing you charge level, battery status and carefully modelled remaining charge and discharge times!

Running Wayland on Bookworm OS? ❗

If you've switched to the Wayland windown manager on Bookworm OS then please try our New RR_BatWay Wayland System Tray Icon application, easily configured to autostart on your shiny new desktop. 😃

Remote Monitoring using your Web Browser

Head over to the RR_WebMonitor folder (see file listing above) to use your browser to remotely access all the battery status information, and even request a shutdown or restart of your system. Please see further instructions in the RR_WebMonitor README file.

Check out our Battery Monitor with email alerts!

Head over to the RR_BatMonitor folder (see file listing above) for a background battery monitor application that can email you on any battery state changes and manage a safe shutdown - perfect for 'headless' (no GUI) or unattended systems!

Home Automation with our Red Reactor MQTT Client!

Head over to the RR_MQTT folder (see file listing above) for our first release of our MQTT client to publish full battery status updates to your favourite MQTT Broker and Home Automation system, whilst monitoring the battery voltage to ensure a safe shutdown. Full details are in the readme file.

❗ NEW if you want a fully integrated HomeAssistant RedReactor MQTT client head over to mqtt -->> homeassistant Closed Issue #10 for more information!

Install for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

We have now tested the configuration and setup requirements for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (tested on the 64-bit Desktop edition) and documented the changes you need to apply on our website at https://www.theredreactor.com/2022/10/14/ubuntu/ - please follow these instructions first before adding and using these libraries/applications. Do let us know if your setup is behaving differently!

Installing the Ubuntu Red Reactor Kernel Module

❗ NEW If you want to make use of the Ubuntu OS battery monitoring applications and system tray icon you can now install our brand new redreactor kernel module and driver in the RR_Ubuntu folder! Or use the RR_BatUbu system tray widget in the RR_BatWay folder.

Red Reactor Node-RED Dashboard

Check out the release of our Red Reactor Node-RED Home Automation Dashboard, which connects to our RR_MQTT client and gives you full visibility and control of your Red Reactor enabled Pi system! Easy to extend to fully automate your own control functions (e.g. alter the battery warning level under high load and temperature), or deploy for multiple devices, you can find out more about the setup on our website at https://www.theredreactor.com/2022/10/25/node-red/ with installation details in our RR_NodeRED folder above (https://github.com/Scally-H/RedReactor/tree/main/RR_NodeRED). We're looking forward to your suggestions for additional features!

Mechanical drawing and 3D Models for your custom case designs

We have created a first version of the mechanical drawing and 3D model of the Red Reactor to support you in creating your custom case desigs. We will release these files through this GitHub repository after formal review, until then you can view them on our news site.

Production Status

Find out more!

You will find detailed technical information and software configuration guide in the RedReactor User Manual (pdf) - see the above file repository. We've now added a version history (v1.8) to summarise any changes.

For additional help feel free to ask questions, and check out the Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3rKXVp0QUgYTzju2NIGytA or contact us on hello@theredreactor.com - we'd love to hear from you.

For more news and regular updates, please visit us at www.theredreactor.com

We look forward to seeing you there!