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.

Split Voltage into Multiple Channels

Status
Not open for further replies.

mihirshah100

New Member
Split Voltage into Multiple Channels

Hello everyone

I am fairly new to electronics and I am trying to carry out a project of making a USB charging system. I am having difficulties in trying to split voltage.

Scenario:

I have a voltage of ‘X’ amount, and I am trying to split it into 8 channels of about 10V each.

The reason the voltage is of ‘X’ amount is because I will be using a battery which gets recharged using solar energy so I will not know how much voltage it will carry all the time.

I have attached a diagram to help with my explanation.
Break Down.png


If you need any further explanation, please let me know.

Thank you in advance
Regards,
Shah_Key
 
I don´t think you need any "splitting" if all you want is 10V DC going to all the devices, you can safely wire them in parallel. The only thing you will need will be some dc-dc converter to get the stable 10V.
 
Thank you for your post.

The power will be stored in a leisure battery such as a Gelled electrolyte Battery.
How would I split the power that is stored on here to the other individual circuits (1 - 8)?

Thank you
 
I thought all USB based power was 5 volts and limited to 1 - 2 amps per USB socket? :confused:
 
Might be a typo: USB (Universal Serial Bus) vs. UPS (Uninterpretable Power System)

Just a crystal ball guess. Sometimes it's broken though.
 
Is your battery 12V? If so, why do you want a 10V supply when USB is 5V?
 
Is your battery 12V? If so, why do you want a 10V supply when USB is 5V?

Yes the battery has a nominal voltage of 6V and 12V
My original design was going to have 10V at each channel but now i will be considering to connect them in parallel as stated by 'kubeek' earlier.

I only thought of the 10V output because at each of the channels it will have to power 3 devices as an output:
- USB - To charge the phone
- LED to show the phone is charging
- LED to show the phone has finished charging
 
You don't need a splitter. If you want to charge many phones through USB, you can buy converter modules like this:
**broken link removed**

You can connect many of them directly to the same battery (7V to 24V).
 
Last edited:
You don't need a splitter. If you want to charge many phones through USB, you can buy converter modules like this:
**broken link removed**

You can connect many of them directly to the same battery (7V to 24V).

Wow that's brilliant.
I'm trying to make one from scratch and trying to have a LED light which tells me when it is charging and when it has finished.
Is this going to be difficult to design? - will i need to have charge controller to tell me when the current drain has decreased? etc...

Thank You
 
Wow that's brilliant.
I'm trying to make one from scratch and trying to have a LED light which tells me when it is charging and when it has finished.
Is this going to be difficult to design? - will i need to have charge controller to tell me when the current drain has decreased? etc...

Thank You

I think you can figure out when charging is in progress with an "over current indicator" -circuit:
**broken link removed**

In above circuit the led D1 lights up when the current is above a set value. You can connect another led in reverse direction in parallel with the first one.. that led will light up when the current is below a set value.

At least that is the concept. You should be able to combine the current sensing and the 5V regulation in one design.. I don't have time to draw anything right now.
 
Last edited:
I found a good picture of a simple current indicator circuit:
**broken link removed**
 
Simple, as misterT said, you need to split. Buy a 5v 3amp wallwart, and parallel connect 10 USB sockets to it. That will work.

USB standard is 5v, 500mA. But, i think some ppl do use 5.5v volts for USB Chargers, dont know whether its safe, dont know whether its advantageous in any way.

Using a solar charger would be impractical since the charging capacity would not be to that extent. Moreover, you need to buy a right solar panel.
 
Last edited:
I think you can figure out when charging is in progress with an "over current indicator" -circuit:
**broken link removed**

In above circuit the led D1 lights up when the current is above a set value. You can connect another led in reverse direction in parallel with the first one.. that led will light up when the current is below a set value.

At least that is the concept. You should be able to combine the current sensing and the 5V regulation in one design.. I don't have time to draw anything right now.

Thank you very much for your help

The input voltage will vary depending on how much voltage is stored in the batter - so it will be up to 12V

As it will be up to 12V input I will need to try and have an output of 5V (which will be the female USB connection)
This will be quite a big step down and there could be a lot of waste and it could overheat a voltage regulator if I use one.

Here is an example of a circuit I found:
1: http://www.circuitdiagram.org/usb-car-charger.html
2 - With an LED: http://www.circuitdiagram.org/usb-charger.html

Or i could maybe use:
3: http://www.hobby-circuits.com/circuits/power-supply/battery-charger/711/mobile-phone-and-ipod-battery-charger-circuit

Please let me know your thoughts
Thank you
 
Simple, as misterT said, you need to split. Buy a 5v 3amp wallwart, and parallel connect 10 USB sockets to it. That will work.

USB standard is 5v, 500mA. But, i think some ppl do use 5.5v volts for USB Chargers, dont know whether its safe, dont know whether its advantageous in any way.

Using a solar charger would be impractical since the charging capacity would not be to that extent. Moreover, you need to buy a right solar panel.

Thank you for your help

I find that the device is something similar to what I need, but I am trying to build one from scratch with some LEDs to tell me when the phone is charging and when it has finished charging. That is something I am having trouble designing.

The solar energy will be captured and stored in a leisure battery and the leisure battery will output up to 12V (from what I can remember from the specs)

I have posted some links above about a few examples I have found.
I was just wondering if they will be able to work with what I am trying to do and if it is efficient... etc (or if there is something even more efficient and simple)

Thank you
 
As it will be up to 12V input I will need to try and have an output of 5V (which will be the female USB connection)
This will be quite a big step down and there could be a lot of waste and it could overheat a voltage regulator if I use one.

Please let me know your thoughts
Thank you

The first link I posted (#10) was a switched mode regulator that has very good efficiency and can take in 7 to 24 volts.
**broken link removed**
 
Last edited:
The first link I posted (#10) was a switched mode regulator that has very good efficiency and can take in 7 to 24 volts.
**broken link removed**

Oh ok yea i see that thanks.
Any idea how i would be able to make that at home?
I don't know what components they have used and the circuit design. Plus i would need to try and add 2 LED's (1 for indicating it is charging and the other one indicating it has finished charging.
(The reason why i am focused on making one like this myself is because it is a home project)

Thank you
 
Any idea how i would be able to make that at home?

I don't know what components they have used and the circuit design. Plus i would need to try and add 2 LED's (1 for indicating it is charging and the other one indicating it has finished charging.
(The reason why i am focused on making one like this myself is because it is a home project)

Thank you

you couldnt make it for that price at home, specially when you need a whole bunch of them
with some things its just pointless trying to "reinvent the wheel"
And with the skill level you have so far indicated, it would be a serious undertaking for you,
probably not a project you could yet handle

Also you still seem to be fixated with 10V USB output.... a really really BAD idea
eventually you will plug something into one of those USB ports that is expecting the USB standard of 5V
and you will kill it

Dave
 
you couldnt make it for that price at home, specially when you need a whole bunch of them
with some things its just pointless trying to "reinvent the wheel"
And with the skill level you have so far indicated, it would be a serious undertaking for you,
probably not a project you could yet handle

Also you still seem to be fixated with 10V USB output.... a really really BAD idea
eventually you will plug something into one of those USB ports that is expecting the USB standard of 5V
and you will kill it

Dave

Yea I see what you mean.
I'm not after a 10V output from a USB - just a 5V output so it can charge a device via the USB (e.g. a mobile phone)

The reason I am trying to design/make one is because it is supposed to be a project for me to do. If i buy the product mentioned about it just means i didn't really do any work on it (just put things together like a puzzle)

I posted some links about, not sure if you have had a chance to see them, but they are simple circuits used to take in a voltage (like 12V) and output a voltage (like 5v [USB])
I just wanted to know if they would work and how to add some LED's to it to indicate when it is finished charging and when it is charging.

And yea there are going to be many of these boards (x8) which are going to be connected in parallel to each other.

Thank you
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest threads

New Articles From Microcontroller Tips

Back
Top