Brief (6min) video by Jeff Geerling on a neat piece of gadgetry. It's essentially a universal barrel connector adapter kit, but uses USB-C instead of a standard wall plug. The barrels can be...
Brief (6min) video by Jeff Geerling on a neat piece of gadgetry. It's essentially a universal barrel connector adapter kit, but uses USB-C instead of a standard wall plug. The barrels can be swapped out, and the adapter can be programmed through a simple web app to change the voltage. Think it goes up 48V @ 5A.
Though my main concern would be the fact that the web app isn't local. What happens if the company stops supporting this thing? Or they go under? Or they get enshittified and start charging for access? I'd want to have the ability to change the adapter voltage locally.
Still might pick up this kit. Would be a nice tool to have around the house for my homelab shenanigans. I've definitely had to order a barrel connector AC adapter for a device, without even know if the device still worked!
I have a couple of adapters that go from usb to 9v and one to 12v with one of those two pin reversible multi barrel jack ends. Used primarily for old synth modules. They work well enough and don’t...
I have a couple of adapters that go from usb to 9v and one to 12v with one of those two pin reversible multi barrel jack ends. Used primarily for old synth modules. They work well enough and don’t suffer the same risk of death by service.
This is a really cool idea, but the interface seems like a mistake, there's no way to physically see what voltage a given adapter is going to deliver unless you plug in a meter. You could make a...
This is a really cool idea, but the interface seems like a mistake, there's no way to physically see what voltage a given adapter is going to deliver unless you plug in a meter. You could make a simple mistake and push 24V when you thought it was configured for 12V... dip switches seem like they'd be a better approach here, no?
This would be a great place to use a small e-ink screen that could show the current voltage. It could show even the last voltage when powered off. I wonder if they make tiny e-ink screens that are...
This would be a great place to use a small e-ink screen that could show the current voltage. It could show even the last voltage when powered off.
I wonder if they make tiny e-ink screens that are just 64 x 64 pixels or something like that.
Weirdly, the really cheap no-brand USB-C to barrel adapters do have a tiny seven segment display built in, even though they’re fixed voltage. Power readout is nice, I guess, but it seems like an...
Weirdly, the really cheap no-brand USB-C to barrel adapters do have a tiny seven segment display built in, even though they’re fixed voltage. Power readout is nice, I guess, but it seems like an odd design choice that would’ve worked much better on something reconfigurable like this!
There's pretty small ones available - https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/e-ink-corporation/SCB721001/6007723 Dimensions: 30.57mm x 21.57mm x 0.59mm A segmented display would actually be...
I wonder if the programmable USB-C bit knows which of the barrel jack extensions it’s attached to? If you can set a profile per barrel jack I can see that as a nice reason for using the more...
I wonder if the programmable USB-C bit knows which of the barrel jack extensions it’s attached to? If you can set a profile per barrel jack I can see that as a nice reason for using the more complex adapter in the middle.
I was thinking of a locking and rotating cuff around one of the ends that selects the voltage. But that increases the manufacturing cost significantly.
I was thinking of a locking and rotating cuff around one of the ends that selects the voltage. But that increases the manufacturing cost significantly.
If anyone's looking for the general-case version of this, "USB-C trigger board" is the search term you need - they tend to just be bare boards not too much bigger than the USB-C port itself, with...
If anyone's looking for the general-case version of this, "USB-C trigger board" is the search term you need - they tend to just be bare boards not too much bigger than the USB-C port itself, with solder pads or screw terminals for the output and dip switches or traces to bridge to set the voltage. They're also like $0.50 each if you buy a multipack.
The version in the video looks cool too, and for a lot of uses there's solid value in a neat packaged ready to go solution, so no intention to say anything against it if it's what you're looking for. But there have been enough occasions that I've needed something that turned out to be a totally standard part and I just didn't know it existed/didn't know what it was called that it seemed worth pointing out!
Brief (6min) video by Jeff Geerling on a neat piece of gadgetry. It's essentially a universal barrel connector adapter kit, but uses USB-C instead of a standard wall plug. The barrels can be swapped out, and the adapter can be programmed through a simple web app to change the voltage. Think it goes up 48V @ 5A.
Though my main concern would be the fact that the web app isn't local. What happens if the company stops supporting this thing? Or they go under? Or they get enshittified and start charging for access? I'd want to have the ability to change the adapter voltage locally.
Still might pick up this kit. Would be a nice tool to have around the house for my homelab shenanigans. I've definitely had to order a barrel connector AC adapter for a device, without even know if the device still worked!
Looks like there is also a Python based cli app they make available.
I have a couple of adapters that go from usb to 9v and one to 12v with one of those two pin reversible multi barrel jack ends. Used primarily for old synth modules. They work well enough and don’t suffer the same risk of death by service.
He said it uses Web Serial so probably not too difficult to reverse engineer the protocol if the page goes down
This is a really cool idea, but the interface seems like a mistake, there's no way to physically see what voltage a given adapter is going to deliver unless you plug in a meter. You could make a simple mistake and push 24V when you thought it was configured for 12V... dip switches seem like they'd be a better approach here, no?
This would be a great place to use a small e-ink screen that could show the current voltage. It could show even the last voltage when powered off.
I wonder if they make tiny e-ink screens that are just 64 x 64 pixels or something like that.
Weirdly, the really cheap no-brand USB-C to barrel adapters do have a tiny seven segment display built in, even though they’re fixed voltage. Power readout is nice, I guess, but it seems like an odd design choice that would’ve worked much better on something reconfigurable like this!
https://www.adafruit.com/product/6383
250x122 seems to be the smallest they sell.
Definitely too large for a power plug. Unless it was on the end that plugged in to the wall, I suppose?
There's pretty small ones available - https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/e-ink-corporation/SCB721001/6007723
Dimensions: 30.57mm x 21.57mm x 0.59mm
A segmented display would actually be just about perfect for something like this. Though the cost is quite high for small batches.
A small OLED would probably be better as it's quite a lot cheaper and the benefits of e-ink aren't really utilized in an application like this.
Yeah, adding $12 to every single charger is a bit pricey when you’re trying to USB all the things.
I wonder if the programmable USB-C bit knows which of the barrel jack extensions it’s attached to? If you can set a profile per barrel jack I can see that as a nice reason for using the more complex adapter in the middle.
I was thinking of a locking and rotating cuff around one of the ends that selects the voltage. But that increases the manufacturing cost significantly.
If anyone's looking for the general-case version of this, "USB-C trigger board" is the search term you need - they tend to just be bare boards not too much bigger than the USB-C port itself, with solder pads or screw terminals for the output and dip switches or traces to bridge to set the voltage. They're also like $0.50 each if you buy a multipack.
The version in the video looks cool too, and for a lot of uses there's solid value in a neat packaged ready to go solution, so no intention to say anything against it if it's what you're looking for. But there have been enough occasions that I've needed something that turned out to be a totally standard part and I just didn't know it existed/didn't know what it was called that it seemed worth pointing out!
We'll I'll be, I wanted to travel with my mini-pc and was literally thinking about this exact concept. Good to know it actually exists and works.