Waveshare UPS Battery Backup for Raspberry Pi + Data Logging to MQTT

As some of you may know, I have a Raspberry Pi which handles all of the radios for Home Assistant. It runs ZwaveJS2MQTT (using the WebSockets connection to Home Assistant, not MQTT), Zigbee2MQTT (using MQTT), and RTL-433 (also using MQTT). So, it's fairly critical infrastructure. Usually, with critical infrastructure, I try to get it PoE powered so I don't have to worry about power bricks and can get battery backup via the CRS328 network switch in the basement (which is on a battery of its own). But, unfortunately, the connection between my upstairs laundry room and basement network closet is via fiber, so no power being carried there. I need another solution, and not wanting a giant AC UPS I decided on a tiny Pi UPS from Waveshare. It's a hat for the Pi with two 18650 lithium batteries, a charger circuit, power monitor and balancing ICs, and an 8.4v to 5v buck converter to power the Pi itself. It comes with an 8.4v wall brick to power the whole thing, and is designed to be plugged in to wall power normally and transition to battery power without any interruption. But, that's still not good enough for me. I want the data collected to get into Home Assistant. So, I wrote a custom Python script to push the power monitor data to MQTT, and made a video about it. There are 3 models from Waveshare and I believe the software will cover all 3 correctly - the 'A' model has female 40 pin header (on TOP of the Pi), the 'B' model has pogo pins (the one I have, on the BOTTOM of the Pi), and the 'C' model uses a single pouch cell and is for the Pi Zero. Let me know if you have an A or C model with issues (via a Github issue preferably). Link to my blog post on the topic: https://www.apalrd.net/posts/2022/rpi_ups/ My Discord Server, where you can carry on the discussion or suggest future topics: https://discord.gg/xJsaEukAr4 If you find my content useful and would like to support me, feel free to here: https://ko-fi.com/apalrd Link to the software I wrote to read data from these boards and send it to MQTT: https://github.com/apalrd/waveshare_ups_mqtt/ Link to the Pi UPS 'A' model (female pins to mount on top of the Pi): At Amazon: https://amzn.to/3FEo86J At Waveshare: https://www.waveshare.com/ups-hat.htm Link to the Pi UPS 'B' model (pogo pins to mount on bottom of the Pi, the one I bought): At Amazon: https://amzn.to/3TYkuJe At Waveshare: https://www.waveshare.com/product/ups-hat-b.htm Link to the Pi UPS 'C' model for the Pi Zero: At Amazon: https://amzn.to/3fo33TC At Waveshare: https://www.waveshare.com/ups-hat-c.htm Product links may be affiliate links. Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 01:04 - Story Time 02:36 - Assembly 04:55 - Software 09:15 - MQTT Explorer