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HV4.0 (fw 0179) does not respect "Running Time on Battery" parameter

Dimitris — Sun, 23 Nov 2025 21:37:07 +0000

Hello,

A few days ago I purchased a UPS PIco HV4.0B Stack with Lead Acid backup battery, fw version 0150, from a Greek vendor. Intended usage is to prevent SD card corruption of my Raspberry Pi4B (with Moode Audio installed on it), when AC mains voltage is switched off. Pi is powered from the USB-C connection, via the original AC/DC power pack. So I expect my Pi+HV04 to automatically shut down when AC is off for more than 1 min and to automatically return to operation when power input is on again.

First, I soldered the two pogo pins at the correct locations for the Pi 4 (i.e. at the holes near the SYS LED).

Then I proceeded with setting up the sw environment on my Pi. Here I faced some difficulties during the software setup (I will make another post about that) but finally I managed to install the daemons on my Pi machine and the script for decreasing the I2C Raspberry Pi I2C rate. However, HV4.0 was quite unstable during the transition from normal operation to LPR, so I decided to update the firmware to the latest publicly available version (0179). After this update, the unit is operational but it does not behave as expected. Here is what it happens:

1. When power to Pi is normal, SYS LED blinks every 750 msec.

2. After turning of the DC power to the Pi, SYS LED blinks every 2 sec.

3. After ~30 sec, and while power to the Pi is off, BAT LED turns on and off quite erratically, in orange color. SYS LED keeps blinking at 2 sec intervals.

4. After 4 min : 45 sec, both SYS and BAT LEDs turn off and Pi is turned off as well.

My main problem is the long time needed for shutting down (4min:45sec). It should be ~ 1 min. And the operation of the BAT LED implies that something worrisome happens here.

If I press the F button:

1. SYS LED is blinking at 2 sec intervals

2. After ~ 5 min, SYS LED turns off but Pi still operates (i.e., it does not turn off)

Here is the status information:

*************************************************
UPS PIco HV4.0 Status
Version 1.4 Relase Date 13.03.2024
Compatible with Firmware 0x0168 and up
*************************************************

System Clock read from Date................: 2025-11-23 22:51:39
System Clock read from HWCLOCK.............: Error: {error_message}
UPS PIco RTC Registers direct read.........: 2025-11-23 20:51:39

UPS PIco Firmware..........................: 0179
UPS PIco Bootloader........................: 41
UPS PIco PCB Version.......................: 54
UPS PIco PCB Defaut Battery................: Battery LiPO 'L' 0x4C
UPS PIco Set Battery.......................: Battery SAL 'A' 0x41

Raspberry Pi Core Temprature...............: 42 C
Raspberry Pi Core Temprature read by PICo..: 44 C
Embedded Fan Temp. Threshold...............: 45 C
Embedded Fan Speed.........................: OFF % of Total RPM

Powering Mode..............................: Cable POWERED
Power Backup Set Mode......................: Battery Backup

Battery Level..............................: 4.3 V
Super Capacitor Level......................: 3.8 V
EPR/PPoE Powering Level....................: 0.0 V
RPi(USB) Powering Level....................: 5.2 V

Running Time on Battery....................: 1 min
Battery Charger Status.....................: ON
Max Allowed Battery charging curent........: 0.44 A
Max Allowed On Board SCAP charging curent..: 0.0 A

Power Source(s) Cable checking timeout.....: 0.3 Seconds
Restart on Hold time.......................: 00 Seconds
FSSD Durtion...............................: 30 Seconds
Firmware loop..............................: Healthy - Running Properly
Still Alive Timer..........................: Timer Disabled
Raspberry Pi OFF waiting time..............: 5 Minutes
Magic Switch Funtionality..................: de-Activated

UPS PIco HV4.0 RS232(s) Setup..............: RPI_RS232_OFF PICO_RS232_OFF
-12/+12 V RS232 Driver Connection..........: none
RS232 PIco routing.........................: not implemented yet
RS232(s) PIco sleep/wakeup data setup......: not implemented yet
RS232(s) PIco sleep/wakeup data received...: not implemented yet

Internal Relay State.......................: OFF
User LED Green Activity....................: OFF
User LED Blue Activity.....................: OFF
Green LED mapping setup....................: none
Blue LED mapping setup.....................: none

A/D Converters Correction Factor...........: 00
A/D Converter 0 ...........................: 0.0
A/D Converter 1 ...........................: 0.0
Opto Coupler/Digital Input Level...........: 0.0

Questions on Firmware, Magic Switch, LED mapping, FSSD behavior

s3000 — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 10:14:55 +0000

Hello,

I am switching over from email to the community forum, as answers to these questions might be interesting to other users. I have been testing the device in different operational modes. Overall, I like many things about it. Some questions remain, though.

1) Firmware
Is 0179 still the latest firmware around? I saw some mentions of 0180+ firmware being released soon and wonder what will change and when it will become available. Changing the setup script to work with 0179 worked fine, that's not an issue.

2) Magic Switch
The biggest headaches came from trying out the Magic Switch. The problematic behavior is happening if Magic Switch is enabled and OFF and the device gets power from EPR again. I know this is not a supported operational state, but it could happen if users are careless, and therefore needs to be tested. Since Magic Switch is always shutting the device down as soon daemon is running and EPR power is always waking it up again as soon as it sleeps, the device ends up in an endless rebooting loop.

In my opinion, a different behavior would be more useful: The reboot by detected EPR power should not happen at all, when Magic Switch is enabled and the switch is turned OFF, giving the switch true master functionality, avoiding the fight between switch shutdown and EPR reboot. I could not really find a reason yet for not implementing the switch like this. Is the current behavior intentional?

I temporarily tried isolating the installed pogo pins, but this led to other trouble of not being able to wake up the Pi anymore. I ended up leaving the pogo pins connected and just disabling the switch, leaving it OFF and using the FSSD button for shutdown and wakeup only. This works well so far, so it’s not a big issue, but the switch’s behavior is useless to me at the moment.

3) LED Mapping
The USR LED mappings did not work yet. I can set the USR LEDs manually in registers 0x09 or 0x0a, to get a constant 'system active' LED without problem. But mapping of e.g. SYS or CHG LED using registers 0x17 or 0x18 does not work yet, USR LED will just stay in the manually set state. Is the mapping already fully implemented in the 0179 firmware? Of course I could just solder an external LED to the SYS or CHG LED pads instead of mapping. But if mapping is implemented, I would prefer to set it up correctly to stay flexible.

4) FSSD Behavior
Finally, is there a way to detect the Pi's shutdown state dynamically instead of setting a hard-coded FSSD duration? I imagine the following behavior: FSSD is pressed, Pi powers down safely, and then PIco immediately cuts power, once Pi is detected as down, without waiting for a timer to run out. I have set the FSSD timer to short 8 seconds now to get a pretty quick reaction, but I can not be sure that Pi is always shutting down this fast, therefore this could lead to issues. Is there something I overlooked or misunderstood in the concept?

Thank you for your support!

---------------------------------------------------------------
UPS PIco Firmware..........................: 0179
UPS PIco Bootloader........................: 41
UPS PIco PCB Version.......................: 42

0(b) pico_state...........0x00 : 0x00
1(b) Battery Runtime......0x01 : 0x0f (15 min)
2(b) RS232 Rate...........0x02 : 0x00 (PICO_OFF RPI_OFF)
3(b) rpi_hold_on..........0x03 : 0x00
4(b) pico_rpi_route.......0x04 : 0x00
5(b) sta_timer............0x05 : 0xff (OFF)
6(b) enable5V.............0x06 : 0x00 (OFF)
7(b) battype..............0x07 : 0x49 (Battery Li-Ion 'I')
8(b) setA_D...............0x08 : 0x00
9(b) led_green............0x09 : 0x00 (OFF)
10(b) led_blue............0x0a : 0x01 (ON)
11(b) relay...............0x0b : 0x00 (OFF)
12(b) bmode...............0x0c : 0x00 (BUZZER OFF)
13(w) bfreq...............0x0e : 0x0000 (0 Hz)
14(b) bdur................0x10 : 0x00
15(b) fmode...............0x11 : 0x03 (FAN AUTO HARD)
16(b) fspeed..............0x12 : 0x64 (100)
17(b) fttemp..............0x13 : 0x53
18(b) fsstep..............0x14 : 0x05
19(b) LEDs_ON/OFF.........0x15 : 0x01 (ON)
20(b) on_the_go...........0x16 : 0x00
21(b) map_led_green.......0x17 : 0x00
22(b) map_led_blue........0x18 : 0x00
23(b) chg_ctrl............0x19 : 0x01
24(b) fssd_duration.......0x1a : 0x08
25(b) rpi_OFF_time_reg....0x1b : 0x05
26(b) ad_corectionf.......0x1c : 0x00
27(b) Scheduler_Sel.......0x1d : 0xff
28(b) BS_action_time......0x1e : 0x00
29(b) BS_inaction_time....0x1f : 0x00
30(w) BS_Start_time.......0x20 : 0x0000
31(b) BS_multipier........0x22 : 0x00
32(b) BS_RUN..............0x23 : 0x00
33(b) SAS_number..........0x24 : 0x00
34(b) SAS_run.............0x25 : 0x00
35(b) ps_checking_time....0x26 : 0x1e
36(b) BAT_level_report....0x27 : 0x05
37(w) SC_level_start......0x28 : 0x0000
38(b) debug_mode..........0x2a : 0x00 (PICO_OFF RPI_OFF)
39(blk) RS232_data........0x2b : 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00

I2C not working properly

ryf — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 15:35:51 +0000

I don't see the I2c Adresses 0x68/0x69, I only see 6a..6f as in the attached Image.

I have an other I2C Device on Adress 0x38 which works without any issue, so i think the bus should be ok.
I cant find anything about pull-up resistors on the UPS Pico, i habe some on my other Device 0x38.

Any suggestions?

pico1.jpg

Last firmware and scripts for UPS PIco HV3.0A/B/B+

piro — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 09:04:10 +0000

I recently replaced the 450 mAh LiPO battery that came with my UPS PIco with Li-Ion batteries in the 18650 battery holder. The firmware (e3) and boorloader (50) that is running on my UPS PIco does not support setting the battery type to Li-Ion. I tried to install the newer firmware version 0x21 from https://pimodules.com/common-updates but the status script I have throws errors. In addition, even though I could set the battery type to Li-Ion with the new firmware, the status script did not recognize the Li-Ion setting. I reverted back to firmware e3 now.

The user in this forum topic (https://pimodules.com/community/main-forum/ups-goes-stops-working-ups-led-off-after-5-mins-even-if-on-power) seems to have an even newer firmware (firmware 29 / bootloader 53).

Can you please send me the latest version of the firmware and the daemons/status script for HV3.0 ?

I also wonder if the newer firmware for HV4.0 (available from https://pimodules.com/firmware-updates) also works on HV3.0 ?

Thanks in advance.

Firmware 0179

rkw — Sat, 04 Jan 2025 17:56:07 +0000

Hello Pimodule team,
is there actually a new manual that fits the FW 0179?
Kind regards

RP4 Reboots when UPS PIco HV4.0B goes to LPR mode

kaif — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 14:42:40 +0000

I've recently been testing using the F button to start and stop the RPi when connected via the USB Power supply.

When I press the F button, the UPS correctly triggers shutdown, and the red LED on the pi as well as the solid SYS LED on the UPS are on. However, after the FFSD timeout (30s) the UPS enters LPR mode (SYS LED goes Off), and as soon as it does, the RPi reboots with the UPS still in LPR mode (no LEDs on).

If I just leave it, the RPi will happily work, but with no UPS functionality.

If I press the F button at this time, it hard resets the RPi and reboots it with the UPS working correctly again.

I have a couple of other hats on the RPi board. I am wondering if their power draw in LPR mode is somehow confusing the UPS and triggering a restart? or is the just he RPi?

Could you please help?

Thanks

supercapacitors only on UPS Pico HV4 for stay in vehicle raspberry pi

oddone — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 02:25:33 +0000

I am interested in getting the UPS PIco HV4.0B/C Stack for use
only with the super caps, as a stay in vehicle raspberry

There are just a couple of options for super caps when ordering
the HV4 right now, the biggest being the 3000F. I see that hats
were once an option.

The 3000F is rated @2V7, and need to be
connected to the Super Capacitor pads. This Super Capacitor can
be used with battery or without (alone).

We have also an additional Super Capacitor Ratted 4000F
but @4V2. Currently out of stock.
This need to be connected to the Battery Socket, and CANNOT
be used with the battery. Only alone.

I have a couple of questions.

How long can the 3000f cap provide power to the rpi4?

The 3000F is comparable to 1000 - 1200 mAh
LiPO Battery, and depending to running application is about
30-50 minutes of work.
The 4000F is comparable to 2000 - 2200 mAh
LiPO Battery, and depending to running application is about 50
- 80 minutes of work.

It seems the customer needs to assemble/solder the caps on. Is
there instructions and hopefully a picture I could look at before
ordering to see if I have the ability to put it together?

Yes, in the manual, please download it and check,
due to size of them I would suggest to use cables. If you buy it
form us, we will add a socket, plug and cable to them.

With the cap hats, is everything all together, just stack on top
of the gpio pins?

Yes, but you need to use cable fro SC connection
, so much more flexible

If so, do you know when the cap hats will be available again?

The 3000F are on stock about 30 pcs, the 4000F we
will have again next year, second half of January 2025

supercapacitors only on UPS Pico HV4 for stay in vehicle raspberry pi

oddone — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 02:22:23 +0000