Continue to Site

Welcome to our site!

Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

  • Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

12DC Sockets

Status
Not open for further replies.
So far, this is the most promising: https://www.electro-tech-online.com/custompdfs/2012/02/slva464c.pdf

Note it's divided into 3 sections: Input protection, power supply and Charge controller.

Upgrading the input protection for higher current is probably doable. Now take an already built 12 to 5V converter and use the USB controllers depicted in the app note for each port.

Hopefully, after seeing how this device is built and how your ciggy device is built, you can understand the need for complexity.

That input protector that you found earlier might also work.

The automotive DC-DC converter would be the hardest to make, so if you can buy, do so.

Now you need the charge port controller so you can get the max power from each port.

In reality, the USB current is limited to 0.5 A UNLESS there is some sort of gizmo that implements a dedicated charge port.

These devices are expensive that your connecting, so you do have to invest in power protection.

To give you the idea of the value of power protection, I had a custom MACintosh system at work doing laboratory data acquisition. If this machine went down, we would effective halt our research line and that's all we did. Nearly everything was processed by this machine.

When developing we implemented redundancy. There were two of everything. The second tester was mobile. If any instrument went bad, it was a swap and send out for repair. The $20K light source was exempt. We only had one of these.

The computer had zero problems in the 15 years in operation except for a floppy drive and periodic internal cleaning to get rid of the dust. I did spend $1500 to protect a $1500 computer+$5000 USD of instrumentation.
The loss of the equipment would be much more per day.

The lamp had it's own problems. A full week (scheduled) to upgrade the power supply. I essentially told the manufacturer that there is no way any respectable company did this. They put a 10 A rectifier in a system that needed a 40 A rectifier. They did the transformer mod for free.

The ellipse had to be replaced inside of the light housing because of age and crazing of the coating and the ignition system had to be put internal to the housing. This was not something that we had the expertise to do.
The downtime was scheduled.

The $1000 lamp was replaced once per year and we always had a spare. You have to wear padded clothing, gloves and a full face shield and you can't touch the lamp with your hands. The lamp is pressurized to 20 atmospheres. A fingerprint is inviting an explosion.
 
Last edited:
Anyway, so far you have my take:
1) input protection (that chip you found - possibly)
2) A commercial power supply
3) A charge controller chip for each USB port.
4) The IP67 USB connectors and caps
5) In a flanged gasketed IP67 enclosure.
6) Need to figure out a way to handle LEDS for faults if you want to. Window?
7) Power budget - I think it's pointless to make the ports 100 mA.
8) You probably want a direct connection to the bike.
9) How do you want to turn on the device? Itself or at box?
10) Master switch?
11) Ignition or battery? That's a tough one.
12) Any wierd devices using the coax power connectors that you might want to accommodate?
Like 4.5 V at 200 mA
13) You could have a dedicated fused 5V output?
14) The weakest point is the mini/micro-usb connectors and/or adapters.

Another interesting read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_adapter and associated links.
 
Mornin' Guys.

It's Freezing here.

Ain't spose to freeze.

I don't like it...
 
Morning CBB
Trying to read posts but busy at work today, footballers moaning because pitches are like rock, funnily enough you get that when it stays at best part of -5 all day the day before.....sigh
Warm here today, just above freezing :)

Think KISS has been busy by the look of it, lots of info to read through, just stopped for 5 for quick smoke
Where does he come from, he was on here when I went to bed last night & on here about 6:30 this morning.eek!
 
Last edited:
Man, that felt like a haul from 7am this morning, finally landed for coffee
I will try to catch up a bit but you might have already found something better on later posts


3) I also seemed to gather that there are other devices that he might wish to power.

This website has gotten so bad, you can't even tell what they are offering. **broken link removed** I like their products. The whole idea behind them is that a special "TIP" that contains a few resistors set the current and voltage limits. They have devices for moble and laptops. They combined a 120 V input with a 12-24 V input. In the versions I have only the cord is different. They also support an airplane power connector. The resistor/current info can be found in the patents. They only list by device and not by voltage and current limits. Thus you could have a waterproof cord at one end and a "TIP" for your other devices. Just incorporate the charger into your case. So, you would need to label the TIPS very well.

I know that they are trying to mimic the signatures of devices so it can be more compatible to more devices.

The device I had also had an adapter that changed the output to accept the mini devices which also have special tips. You might only be dealing with mini-devices.

So, you could have a few ports that are standard 0.5A protected by fuses and one of their chargers to support other mobile devices.

Now, I'm being off the wall.

Food for thought. MUNCH! MUNCH!

Not as off the wall as you might think, I love their concept, so much I rushed out & brought one when I read about them, feeling really smug with myself I tried tips........oh dear :-/
There plan was doomed, verified by the fact that they seem quite hard to source the right tip.
There failure for what should have been a great invention easily rectified if only they identified the problem.....sigh
They made the assumption that everyone is stupid & decided to name tips by make of device, wonderful you think.......erm, well no actually. What if you don't own the best selling device in the world, my £350 bike cam, made in china, could I make it work with a IGO tip, the answer is no, surely they make one that would work, I could almost stake my life on it, therein lies their downfall, I or any other living person on this planet cannot identify which tip I need as they haven't put specs of tips for public to look at, they made it so the odd gadget boff couldn't make their own by copying their hard work, if ANY of the big manufacturers wanted to, they could make their own version anyway, all they had to do was make information available, so they might have lost a few hundred sales but they would have made millions more when said public accepted this was THE new way to do things & I swear this would have been bigger than iPhone......their loss, my IGO charger is in post 21 in bag, it does work as a phone charger but it will be consigned to a dusty old shelf in my garage, why...you might ask, well once you start thinking..........perish the thought we the public actually do that, decide we can make an even better solution
Here's my downfall, I hadn't a clue where to start, I never had a need to understand electric, he k, I was one of the public, but now I'm starting to & I know you guys can help me on my quest to understand electronics enough to overcome my downfall & to come up with, not only an acceptable solution but a great solution

Here's my thanks to you both for sticking with me, for laughing quietly while I asked stupid questions & put voltmeter inline, wondering why it didn't work, for this I am forever grateful

I know I'll understand it all one day......heck, you've seen my questions, it may take a while, but I swear it is not wasted & with my idea & your help, I will have the perfect power supply

So when you ask why I dont buy one of the already made things, my answer is simply, I cannot learn from that & create my box, I want to feel proud of designing/building my own

Now, where did we get too.lol
 
Yup.

The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 5 characters.

iS THIS BETTER (damn caps lock)?

In answer to #447
 
Last edited:
Need to sit down tonight & read posts 441/443
Looks like some real good ideas there, along with remembering to post photos that I forgot last night :-/

Need to understand sillyscope as well

I might find all this confusing at times but never enough to want to stop :)

The really silly thing about all this, IGO nailed this concept, a device will only draw what it needs, hence one power source will work...........just haven't got the foggiest how yet.lol
 
Last edited:
That seems like a useful link, where's my whistley smiley/ or should that be my sniggers smiley
Thanks KISS, that should make life easier.lol

So we have a starting point to improve on, yours brains & my will to learn, I knew this was possible

The other good news is that I've realised where I've been going wrong with meters, it has finally clicked you could say, I've always seen wires as + or -, I have been racking my brains all day as to what would cause me to make such a simple mistake, then bang, it hit me....like a ton of bricks, I've stopped seeing wires that way, I now just see them as carriers & have transferred +&- to components......bingo
Well, it was good to readjust my brain anyway :)

Oh, & the last burning question, KISS, are you a vampire? Were you up all night?
& where do you come from *grin*
 
Last edited:
When wires are reversed on a multimeter, the only difference is the sign. With the Sillyscope, phase inversion is dependent on a few more things. With Sillyscopes, voltages across components can let the magic smoke out of the Sillyscope if your not careful.

There were times in troubleshooting where I had a long stick with a hook on the end to discharge the point. Then make the attachment and then power up. There is an old rule that states "One hand in the pocket when making measurements".

I'm a mix of DNA from my parents. I have roots in Lithuania, but am basically a mutt with English and Scottish heritage. Grandfathers were farmers and coal miners. I live in the East coast USA. My body woke me up because of a medical emergency (low blood sugar) and it won't let me go to sleep until it's over. If it's not remedied, I could go into a coma. That event takes about 2 hours or so to solve and wait to be ready to sleep again. I had 3 consecutive ones (Day and a half) which has never happened before. I suspect there is issues with having to shake up/mix insulin. It is not a requirement for mine, but is a requirement for some. It has happened before with new vials or pens just like this time, so I'm going to have to implement shaking/rolling/mixing for every new vial. I sleep with my laptop. So, if I can't sleep, I grab it for a while and then back to bed. For the time being, my nights and days are a little mixed up, but you know that. Other medical issues include migraines 0-48 hours before rain and with some foods (particularly Neutasweet) and Asthma which is also weather triggered. All of this can wreak havoc on sleep. I do have a mountain of stuff to reach for. Sometimes, it might appear that I have different personalities especially because of the migraines. Thinking straight is tough sometimes.
 
Last edited:
That's some rough rows to hoe, KISS. I hope the prognosis is good for you.

I'm convinced that ANY of the fake sugars are bad for you. Course, if there's a problem with sugar there aren't a lot of options.
 
#447 one of the linked links on Wikipedia actually suggested such an animal. It almost looks as if USB has the 5V source nailed up to about 2.8 amps. Just when you thought 5 V was standard, there is now 3.3, 1.8 and 0.8 V power supplies being standard.
 
Ok, I surrender, what source am I meant to be using
CBB's test sillyscope worked fine?

Haven't replied to KISS comment on phone as it deserves time & respect replying

Just having a smoke while pulling my hair out.lol
 
I'd forgotten about this, but a few years ago I bought (in a hobby shop) a charger ( that would work with Lead-acid, NiCd, NmH, Li-ion, Li-po and Li-Fe batteries. Haven't used it much in 18 months.

Max output is 7.0A. And it'll run off 110 - 240VAC, or 11.5 - 15VDC.

https://www.dynamiterc.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=DYN4067#manuals

(Bottom of that page for the pdf manual)

I'm not suggesting anything here, But having used this thing a lot back then, the electronics of this thing are impressive.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

New Articles From Microcontroller Tips

Back
Top