[jpcolin]

Hi,
I think i know the answer but i want to be sure. Can i power off the Rpi just by unplugging it or will i get corruption over the time?
Do i Always have to go to the menu?
my Rpi is connected to an AV receiver, how could i power it on/off with the receiver, CEC doesn't seems to do it...

[mcelliott]

Better to power it down using the menu.

[katsup]

The pi 2 uses very little power, why not just leave it on?

[dandnsmith]

The best, to avoid filesystem corruption is to shutdown the Pi (strictly speaking there is no power-off for the Pi).
CEC is often able to perform this - but you may not have the controls set to perform this op.
There might be some OS specific detail, so, if you want to pursue this topic, you should say what OS/distro you are using (or intend to use)
HTH

[da-anda]

There are UPS modules available for the PI that will trigger a controlled shutdown on power loss. While they are quite nice they're also a bit pricy.

[Bosse_B]

Why shut down in the first place?
You will have to wait a rather long time when switching on before KODI is operational. Sometimes the operating system will also auto-update on power-up and that will invariably take an extra long time to do.
So what is the purpose of powering off the Pi? ? ? ?

[Claudio.Sjo]

There are UPS modules available for the PI that will trigger a controlled shutdown on power loss. While they are quite nice they're also a bit pricy.

Can you provide a link for those?
I think it shoudn't be too much difficult to design one with a couple of transistors.

[Bosse_B]

Not so simple, the PS will have to tell the Pi to go into operating system shutdown and then wait until the Pi is done at which time the power can be removed.
Not as simple as adding a few transistors...

[DarrenHill]

There are UPS modules available for the PI that will trigger a controlled shutdown on power loss. While they are quite nice they're also a bit pricy.

Can you provide a link for those?
I think it shoudn't be too much difficult to design one with a couple of transistors.

One example is this one, although I can't vouch for how well it works..

There is also a different one available from piups.net, but I would very strongly urge you to avoid that one like the plague. I have one, and it is utterly useless, and their customer service is totally non-existent (I'm convinced mine is faulty as the software does nothing at all, but they've not been forthcoming on how to return it and from their forums they seem an utter set of rip-off merchants). It also does not work with OpenElec at all, despite what they claim in their advertising.

[da-anda]

There are UPS modules available for the PI that will trigger a controlled shutdown on power loss. While they are quite nice they're also a bit pricy.

Can you provide a link for those?
I think it shoudn't be too much difficult to design one with a couple of transistors.

https://www.pi-supply.com/product/pi-ups...pberry-pi/ (that should be the one to avoid according to DarrenHill)
https://www.pi-supply.com/product-catego...i-modules/

edit: there should be also one that's just plugged between the USB socket and the power cord with two wires to GPIO pins for shutdown command, but I havent' found the link anymore

[DarrenHill]

https://www.pi-supply.com/product/pi-ups...pberry-pi/ (that should be the one to avoid according to DarrenHill)

It is yes. It works as a basic battery pack (the Pi will merrily carry on running if the power is removed) but there's no way to get it to gracefully shut off or anything like that. So unless you want a battery powered Pi (which in their very minimal documentation they say it shouldn't be used for) then it's useless.

[katsup]

I'd just chance the file system corruption with a power outage, especially if you are not running any critical operations. In worst case, I replace the microSD card if it goes bad.

[speedwell68]

You will have to wait a rather long time when switching on before KODI is operational.

Mine is booted and ready to go in under 30 seconds.

I just shut mine down by pressing S on the keyboard and choosing Power off from the menu. Then I just switch it off at the wall.

[CaptSunset]

There are a couple of flash memory issues that nobody has much commented on...

One is that the Pi power supply, if it has a transformer in it, will generate a surge when popped out of the wall.
Surges are bad for motherboards and worse for memory chips.
It would be somewhat better if we powered down by pulling the micro USB plug after the software power down, then pulling the brick. Tho this has longevity issues.

Another is that, if you watch the Pi carefully, you will see that it powers down extremely rapidly- under 5 seconds.
I have a Toshiba high spec 2 gig flash drive (used it for ReadyBoost).
On a windows machine, it takes at least that long, timing by the flashing LED, for the drive to cycle to Safe To Remove.
This leads me to wonder if the Pi is really allowing enough time for its memory to unmount.
(Twice now I've had a USB drive claim it had a 'possible problem' after use on the Pi, when windows tried to read it.)

Also, there are usually some other devices plugged into the Pi; like a monitor & amplifier; I read somewhere recently about a guy who got a line current shock when touching the Pi. (Apparently the brick, being ungrounded, will push out its 5V on top of whatever else is present, until somebody's finger provides a ground.)

[poplap]

@CaptSunset

I REALLY doubt that phone chargers and tablet chargers have transformers that could damage their intended device, would not make much sense really. Most low power AC to DC converters uses diodes, a capacitor and some sort of power regulating/filter circuit like a switching regulator, the transformer happens at the beginning towning down the higher ac voltage into a lower ac voltage, the key point is it happens before everything else which converts and smooths out the power.

Also when linux shuts down (or rather halts) it unmounts all the file systems, in essence all that does is call a sync (which makes sure everything has been written through) and unloads the filesystem hocks. Now I don't know about windows but I imagine its similar, the whole safe removal thing is really about making sure that all the data being written to the drive has actually be written and that there is nothing reading from the drive. Nothing changes on the drive side, there is not Safe to Remove mode on the drive, the LED is just a usage indicator and probably turns off either when nothing is using it or the system has unloaded the filesystem and the controller is now inactive. Linux would never let something unmount improperly during shutdown, that would be a HUGE problem for an OS. Though I am curious how you get your PI to fully shut down in under 5 seconds, I work with them on a daily basis (though admittedly not overclocked) and they never shutdown that fast and thats just running a CLI only environment without the need for things like Kodi to exit first.

Also that guy had to be doing something strange with his Rpi because that should not be possible. you can not feel 5v across your finger and earth ground is different than the negative leads in an outlet, you have to have a surplus charge for it to not follow the circuit. Not to mention Rpis have approved by the FCC and CE which means they are safe to operate (read no strange shorts and things like that)

(hope I don't sounds like I am attacking you, just wanted to make some things clear)