Breadboard PSU

Overview

Everyone who has started building small test circuits knows this problem well: you want easy access to low voltages often not found off “wall-wart” packs, and it needs to be something which plugs into a breadboard easily.

You can get plenty of small bench supplies which will deliver the voltages, but you’re still stuck with less than ideal ways to connect it to your breadboard. Alternatively you can build a small power supply on one end of the board. Or, you could use this board.

This board packs the regulators, smoothing capacitors, and some power LEDs into a small board you can easily plug into any breadboard. Unlike some breadboard power supplies, this one sits in the “IC” well of the breadboard. This means it will fit any breadboard, and can provide two different voltages off the same DC input.

It provides easy access to the remaining pins of each row to connect it to any side power rails or any other wires which need to be hooked to either power or ground.

Note: Shipping versions of this board do not have pins soldered to the Ground and +V1 or +V2 outputs as shown in the photos. This is so you can solder pins in the orientation you’d prefer, or solder wires for a more permanent installation.

Specifications

  • DC input: 7-19V DC (center-positive 2.1 or 2.5mm barrel jack)
  • DC Output: Two fixed configuration outputs, 3.3 and 5V @ 800ma; custom voltages between 1.25-13.8V DC @ 800mA on request
  • Two power indication LEDs, one for each DC output
  • Protected against reverse polarity DC input
  • Outputs are not fused against overcurrent
  • All specifications subject to change

Resources

License

The PCB design and schematics are released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA).

Status

These can be purchased from the great guys at Nicegear: http://nicegear.co.nz/prototyping/breadboard-psu/

Pictures

Some futher pictures of the board in various states of design.

 

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