Category Archives: Power Supply


Portable power supply with built-in batteries

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Most of the bench power supplies we use derive power from the main AC supply. ThomasVDD presents his Arduino-controlled smart power supply with built-in battery backup so that you can use it anywhere without an AC outlet. It not only delivers precise output, but is also controllable via PC over an USB port. Key Features Constant voltage and constant current modes Uses a low noise linear regulator, preceded by a tracking preregulator to minimize power dissipation Use of handsolderable components to keep the project accessible Powered by ATMEGA328P, programmed with Arduino IDE PC communication via Java application over micro USB Powered

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Making a high-current bench-power supply utilizing ARTESYN NXA66 regulator module

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Andy Brown explored reverse engineering the ARTESYN NXA66 regulator module to build a cost-effective bench-power supply with high current supply capability. NXA66 is a non-isolated dc-dc converter targeted at computing applications that require precise voltage and fast transient requirements of today’s high performance applications such as workstations, file servers, desktop computers, telecommunications equipment, adapter cards, DSP and data processing. He designed an Atmega328 driven controller board that would host the NXA66 and expose its functionality via a front panel consisting of seven segment display modules. I’ve included a relay between the 12V input and the NXA66 because I don’t want the

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DIY Buck-Boost converter

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A buck-boost (also known as step-down and step-up) converter is a type of DC-to-DC converter that combines the principles of the buck and boost switched mode power supplies in a single circuit. What this means is the input voltage could be either higher or lower than the desired output voltage. The Buck-boost converter is very useful in battery-powered systems, where the battery voltage can vary quite a bit depending upon its charge condition and usage, to derive a stable DC supply for an electronics circuit. GreatScott‘s new Youtube video tutorial explains the basics of Buck-Boost converters and shows how to build

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Solar powered USB power bank

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Solo-lab’s new project article is about building a rechargeable USB power bank which harvests energy by using a solar panel. It uses a 3.7V, 4000mAh LiPo battery to store the electric energy generated by the solar panel. The LiPo charging circuit is based on MCP73831, which is a miniature single cell, fully integrated LiPo charge manament controller. The output of the battery is converted to 5V using a step up converter based on LT1302-5. The 5V output is available via USB ports. MCP73831 is miniature single-cell, fully integrated Li-Ion,Li-Po charge management controller. Since the input voltage range is 3.75V to

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A very simple DIY solar-powered USB charger

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Yesterday, I built a very simple DIY solar-powered USB charger for my TP-link 10400mAh USB Power Bank. All I needed was a 6V/3.5W solar panel and the TD1410-based 5V buck converter module. I bought both of them on Aliexpress for less than $8. It was one of the easiest projects I built. All I needed to do was to connect the input of the 5V step-down buck converter to the output of the solar panel using two wires. From TD1410 datasheet, The TD1410 is a 380 KHz fixed frequency monolithic step down switch mode regulator with a built in internal Power MOSFET. It achieves 2A continuous output current

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