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Homebrew Equipment A place to show, design and discuss the weird and wonderful electronic creations from the hands of individual members. |
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1st Nov 2022, 4:28 pm | #1 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Hastings, East Sussex, UK.
Posts: 303
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Wall Wart Eliminator
I got fed up with all the wall warts plugged in to power DACs, Phono amps, etc so I have made a wall wart eliminator.
There are outputs for 5V, 6V, 9V, 12V, 15V and 18V DC. It uses two toroids, bridge rectifiers & smooting caps providing two DC rails (high & low) for the five voltage regulators using 14 off 78xx regulators on two heatsinks. There are 6 outputs but the load is divided into two for each voltage (ie 2 regulators for 18V one for the left three connectors and one for the right three connectors. The 6V and 9V are pre-regulated with a 12V regulator each. All decoupled with lashings (28) of the red capacitors as near to the pins as I could get them. There is a 5V SMPSU (thank you Analogue Man) to supply the two 5V USB sockets then there are 6 off 6 pin aircraft type sockets each with all of the other voltages on it. It is all in a 1U 19 inch rack. It is mounted on 4 feet made from Ikea drawer handles. There is even a DAC built in for emergency use. It may not look elegant inside but it does seem to work. |
1st Nov 2022, 5:24 pm | #2 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Hastings, East Sussex, UK.
Posts: 303
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
Sorry, 24 x red 0.1 uF 100v caps in total.
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1st Nov 2022, 6:33 pm | #3 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 17,820
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
Looks much nicer in the pic than I was expecting from your description! Well done!
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1st Nov 2022, 6:41 pm | #4 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jun 2020
Location: Manchester, UK.
Posts: 253
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
I'm impressed, very well done. And you still have a spare 5v PSU for the next project
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1st Nov 2022, 7:09 pm | #5 |
Heptode
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Manchester, UK.
Posts: 709
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
Nicely done.
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2nd Nov 2022, 12:31 am | #6 |
Heptode
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: Twickenham, London, UK.
Posts: 536
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
It looks very good inside to me!
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Alan G6PUB, BVWS |
2nd Nov 2022, 9:37 am | #7 |
Pentode
Join Date: Mar 2022
Location: Harrow, Middlesex, UK.
Posts: 225
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
I can't quite follow your listing of the outputs. Could you post a block diagram, please nicely?
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2nd Nov 2022, 10:24 am | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 8,809
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
Was the purpose of building it to localise your DC supplies for your hifi equipment, or to reduce/eliminate digital hash from wall warts. In the case of the latter, how successful is it? Superb job by the way!
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A digital radio is the latest thing, but a vintage wireless is forever.. |
2nd Nov 2022, 9:59 pm | #9 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Hastings, East Sussex, UK.
Posts: 303
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
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2nd Nov 2022, 10:01 pm | #10 | |
Hexode
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Hastings, East Sussex, UK.
Posts: 303
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
Quote:
Yet to give is a good listening to as I need to make up the leads to each device. |
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7th Nov 2022, 12:42 am | #11 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Culcheth, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 637
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
Indirectly prompted by this thread, I plugged my USB load monitor between my Samsung wall wart and my Samsung phone.
Previously I had wondered why the phone seemed to charge quicker using the Samsung PSU rather than with a generic 2A device. The answer is, the Samsung wall wart puts out 5v when idle, but switches to 9v when the phone is plugged in. When the phone is charged the voltage drops back to 5v. So don't be surprised if your phones are slow to charge, no matter how many amps are available on your 5v USB ports. Cheers, Buzby |
7th Nov 2022, 9:16 am | #12 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 8,809
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
Quote:
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A digital radio is the latest thing, but a vintage wireless is forever.. |
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7th Nov 2022, 11:51 am | #13 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 17,820
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
The iPhones have some handshaking thing going on to set the charge current too. Possibly as simple as a resistor or two, but that's just from a quick Google.
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8th Nov 2022, 12:43 am | #14 | |
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK
Posts: 1,993
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
Quote:
I fell foul of this a couple of days ago when I bought a Goodmans branded iPhone/iPad charging lead that wouldnt work with apple devices but was fine on a samsung tablet and phone (it had 3 output plug options for micro USB, C type USB and apple Lightning). I suspect its the safety functions built in to Apple kit that demand a data link between device and charger so that over charging can't happen, or other nasties. It's annoying, nay frustrating,, but I can see the point of it. Thinking of the spate of news reports of (usually) vaping devices self immolating whilst on charge using any old wallwart etc etc etc. Andy Last edited by bikerhifinut; 8th Nov 2022 at 12:45 am. Reason: missed a bit |
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8th Nov 2022, 5:41 pm | #15 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: London, UK.
Posts: 3,496
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
We need to see the 'eliminated' Wallwarts.
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Al |
8th Nov 2022, 8:38 pm | #16 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Croydon, Surrey, UK.
Posts: 7,548
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
Quote:
The copy lead just didn't do what the Apple lead did. So next time anyone complains about the cost of an original Apple charger or lead, that's why!
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There are lots of brilliant keyboard players and then there is Rick Wakeman..... |
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8th Nov 2022, 11:17 pm | #17 | ||
Octode
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK
Posts: 1,993
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
Quote:
I ask because the lady sharing a hospital room with my missus, both in extended stays, can't reach round to use the standard 1m charge lead on her devices and I could supply one of my USB extension wires to help her do the charging by herself. These seem like minor irritations until you are in a fix and have to rely on the services of others. Andy. |
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19th Nov 2022, 2:15 am | #18 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Culcheth, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 637
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
Quote:
Some allow the PSU switch to 9v, and some stay fixed at at 5v. I've not yet investigated what is the difference between the cables. Cheers, Buzby |
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19th Nov 2022, 10:04 am | #19 | ||
Tetrode
Join Date: Nov 2022
Location: Near Worcestershire/Gloucestershire border (in WR), UK.
Posts: 70
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Re: Wall Wart Eliminator
Quote:
Prior to USB-C it wasn't too hard to find accurate easy technical details, but since the two wireless and USB-C cable power delivery standards have become available, it's now harder to find accurate, simple, definitive information - again, unless someone knows better (do tell if so) The best link that also covers the older power delivery aspects seems to be here https://www.howtogeek.com/769888/wha...livery-usb-pd/ for an overview. The real specs are available from here https://usb.org/document-library/usb-power-delivery but there are several hundreds if not thousands of pages if you want the complete story from USB 2.0 USB standard. PD 1.0 on USB Type-A/B onwards to the current USB 3.x (including USB-C PD). It's also worth checking how the USB standards compliance work https://www.usb.org/compliance if you manage to find the time and gain an understanding of the above do please share! (I've yet to do much more than gather some links and docs - the "get an understanding" bit is paused currently) Oh, and there are (as usual now) some cheap USB PD modules on the usual suppliers sites (ali..., bang..., eba.. etc.) if you wish to try or experiment - that is what I have managed to do so far, and it's clear that there are several 'understandings' of these specs with some differences, hence my caution in going further without getting the accuarte background. The good news, get the right module and it's fairly easy - but choose the wrong one or a bad module and ooops you may lose. BTDTGTTS Cheers, Paul. |
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