Web platform USB power supply

March 9, 2010 in web platforms by Ian | 1 comment

See the latest version on the documentation wiki.

Markus Gritsch added a USB power supply jumper to his web platform:

I found it convenient to be able to power the Web Platform using my iPhone USB charger and a normal USB cable.  It is also convenient when presenting the board to friends and powering it using their computer.  Therefore I soldered a pluggable (via two DIL socket pins) connection from the USB power to the 3.3 volts regulator (picture attached).  I measured the consumed current which is about 200 mA, so when powering no additional hardware with the Web Platform it should be ok for most USB ports.

In a future revision of the board maybe a switch could be added to choose the power source, similar to the solution on the Seeeduino.

You can buy an assembled web platform for $40, including worldwide shipping.

Tags: ,

  1. Shadyman on March 9, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    Pretty cool!

    Ideally, though, the FTDI chip would be programmed with the current draw so that the host computer knows how much power is disappearing through that USB port.

    Reply