I am always finding some weird way to power things when I am programming them on my desk.
Does anyone have a good tool (or set of tools) for powering things like microcontrollers on their desk? I was looking for something like a USB cable with dupont connectors on the end, but ideally it would have some protection circuitry to keep the USB power supply safe.
I’m looking for anything I haven’t seen before. But generally, I am hoping for these features:
500mA-2A max. I don’t need a 10A benchtop supply
Small enough
5V, but 3.3V would be used too.
No circuitry exposed. I don’t want to worry about the kids shorting it when I am not in the room.
After years of making do, I finally pulled the trigger on a cheap Aliexpress benchtop power supply (Skytoppower STP3010H). 30V and 10A; I’m sure there’s all sorts of reasons why it’s totally inferior to a brand-name model, but it was £30 and it works really well for quickly powering up an ESP32 or whatever. It didn’t come with any probes, but has stand screw-down/jack plug terminals; I spend a few minutes making up crocodile-clip and Dupont connectors for it. I am quite pleased with it, should have bought one ages ago.
I stuck a cheap buck converter on the end of a spare laptop power supply. I shoved it in a 3d printed box. The buck converter is one of those that has the voltage showing on the top of it. Still uses a small screwdriver to adjust it, so I don’t have to worry about the kids (or me) bumping the voltage.
I also put a switch on the output to turn off the device.
For the shop, I built one of the cheap bench-top power supplies from banggood. They were having a sale on the power supply. I splurged and threw a 60v PS in it and even went so far as buying the metal case from them too.
I’m still saving for the function generator and oscilloscope.
