ecPower provides an interface to receive any micro USB charger used in conventional devices (phone, tablet, etc) to source the power in the breadboard. The board offer the option of either selecting a voltage output of 3.3 Vdc from its internal linear regulator or 5Vdc direct from the USB.
It has two rows of pins to provide a secure fit to the breadboard, pin V+ is the positive output voltage, 5 or 3.3 Vdc, which gets selected by a jumper. G- is the ground reference or 0 Vdc.
The linear regulator is rated for 3.3 Vdc and it has a built in over current and over temperature protection providing up to 0.8 A. The PCB acts as its own heatsink, given its nature of linear dissipative regulator there are zones where the temperature could reach 90-95 ºC if the drawn current gets closed to its limit.
If 5 Vdc is chosen, ecPower could source up to 0.5 A, this limit is imposed by a resettable fuse (PTC: Ihold = 0.5A Itrip = 1A).
The connector pins USB D+ and D- are not used, that way the ecPower becomes compatible with any generic charger as our tests have confirmed.
Its compact dimensions (26.5 mm x 14 mm) converts ecPower into a board easy to integrate in any breadboard and a convenient and cost effective way of getting a power supply from a charger that has a conventional micro USB connector.
ecPower breadboard set up
ecPower + connectors
ecPower can be purchased from our shop at tindie:
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