Pure Electronics

←Index

Power to the Pico

by Professor Petabyte

 

Can a RPi Pico run on a 3.6v power supply?

The Raspberry Pi Pico is designed to run at 3.3V internally, and here's how power input works:

Power Supply Options:

Why would you want to it run on 3.6V anyway?

If you want to run a Pico based system remotely from a mains power supply, a battery powered system is the obvious choice, but this comes with the overhead of batteries - incovenient and costly. Therefore a system with rechargable batteries fed from a solar panel is a reasonable choice, provided that
  1. The amount of power required can be provided by solar panel(s).
  2. The system can be located where sufficient light is available.
Pico's normally require 3.3v. Normal batteries (e.g. AA, AAA, D, C, etc) provide 1.5 volts each, so two (3v total) is not enough and three (4.5v total) is too much, but rechargeable batteries of these sizes normally provide 1.2v each, so three of them give 3.6v total, which sits very nicely within the VSYS range of 1.8-5.5v.

So, it can run on 3.6V?

Yes, but only if you're powering through the `VSYS` pin. Do NOT feed 3.6V directly into the 3.3V rail or you may damage the board.

Power Feed Summary

PinVoltage Range3.6V Allowed?Notes
VSYS1.8V - 5.5VYesMain power input
3V3 (out)N/ANoNot an input!
Do NOT supply power here.
VBUS4.5V - 5.5V (USB)No3.6V is too little for VBUS

If you're building a battery-powered project with a 3.6V Li-ion cell, you're good to go with VSYS.

This BIG question then...... How?

You might start by wondering "Surely there's a Solar Power Bank that can do this?". There may be, but many powerbanks regards low power consumption drains (e.g. Pico power) to be a wasted drain, and just turn off. Besindes where's the fun in using a pre-built thing. So a better solution may be to use a raw 9v solar panel, and rig it up to keep some rechargeable cells charged and run the project.

This means that the complete system will comprise several parts.

* Which may needto be factored into the power supply capacity.

Don't miss the next installment of this page..............




© 2025 Professor Petabyte