Last week, Olmex wrote a blog piece on their 3000mAh, 4400mAh, and 6600mAh Li-Po batteries, and made the following interesting observation:
Olimex blogged:
[These are] compatible with all our boards with LiPo chargers like: OLinuXino A13, A20, Olimexino-328, Olimexino-STM32, Pinguino etc.
6600mAh is real monster and can backup as UPS A13-OLinuXino to work without external voltage for 20 hours under full load.
This got me thinking about UPS backup in the ARM era --- maybe it's time for a change away from using conventional mains UPSs as backup power for our computing equipment. If Li-Po charging circuitry is cheap enough for Olimex to incorporate it in a sub-£20 ARM board, that can't present any significant barrier to widespread adoption. What's more, even the largest of these Li-Po batteries has single-digit prices (UK sterling), so this power technology is very clearly in the "Pi niche" of pricing.
Perhaps we should be recommending that more manufacturers provide the Li-Po charging connector as standard on their embedded ARM boards?
