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December 6, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

XIAO Powerbread is a breadboard power supply and meter based on XIAO RP2040 or ESP32 USB-C board

XIAO Powerbread power meter for breadboard

The XIAO Powerbread is a breadboard power supply and meter compatible with XIAO RP2040 or ESP32 USB-C boards and equipped with a color LCD display showing real-time voltage, current, and power consumption for 5V and/or 3.3V power rails. Breadboard power supplies are nothing new. We’ve written about several over the years including the Toaster board with adjustable voltage from 5 to 16V, the SwitchTrick switching power supply board, and the MEGO portable breadboard power supply with a built-in battery. The XIAO Powerbread only supports 5V and 3.3V power rails, but its main selling point is its integrated breadboard power meter function. XIAO Powerbread specifications: Supported USB-C modules General purpose MCU – XIAO RP2040, XIAO RP2350 WiFi / Bluetooth MCU – XIAO ESP32S3, XIAO ESP32C3, XIAO ESP32C6 Display – 0.96-inch color TFT LCD with 160×80 resolution and ST7735S SPI controller Power monitoring – 2x TI INA3221 sensors connected over I2C […]

October 23, 2024October 23, 2024 by Karl Johnson - 2 Comments

EBL MP1000 Review – A 1000W portable AC/DC power station with solar panels

Hey, Karl here and I am getting old. I guess middle age is more accurate. Two wonderful kids and I want to stick around for a while. I have not been feeling well and as a result, I picked up strength training as a form of exercise. I started with an adjustable bench and a set of adjustable dumbbells. I trained with them for about 3 months in my office. I had just enough space. I was hooked. I dove in and learned as much as I could on current best practices, and developed a spreadsheet for tracking progress. I started to outgrow the 55lb/25kg adjustable dumbbells with several exercises and the next step was a squat rack, bar, and Olympic weights. My problem was the lack of space. I had a building that was poorly organized. After a bit of organizing, I was able to carve enough space for […]

October 2, 2024October 1, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Thunderbolt 5 devices are starting to show up with OWC portable SSD and Kensington docking station

Kensington SD5000T5 EQ Thunderbolt 5 Triple 4K Docking Station

Thunderbolt 5 was first unveiled last year with promises of 120 Gbps bandwidth and support for multiple 8K monitors. The good news is that the first Thunderbolt 5-compliant devices are now coming to market. There’s not too much to choose from for now, but we need to start somewhere, and the OWC Envoy Ultra portable SSD ($299.99 and up) and the Kensington SD5000T5 EQ Thunderbolt™ 5 Triple 4K Docking Station with 140W PD ($399.99) – also found on Amazon – are some of the first Thunderbolt 5 devices to make it to market. OWC Enjoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 portable SSD Key features: Speed over 6000MB/sm or up to twice faster than Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Capacity – 2TB or 4TB Compatibility – Macs, PCs, iPad Pros, Chromebooks, and Surface devices with a Thunderbolt 3 to 5 port, or USB4 port Rugged design – Waterproof, dustproof, and crushproof Power Supply – […]

September 23, 2024October 2, 2024 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

MachineQ MQpower CT battery-less LoRa CT clamp measures up to 250A of current

MachineQ has recently introduced MQpower CT, a self-powered, IoT-enabled, LoRa CT clamp designed to monitor real-time current consumption. This CT clamp can measure both accumulated (Ah) and instantaneous current(A) with loads up to 100A and 250A with 1mA resolution. Additionally, it integrates a LoRa module for communication that gets powered by the induced current in the clamp itself. These features make this device useful for energy management, proactive maintenance, power monitoring, and more. We have covered various WI-Fi CT clamps in the past like the SONOFF POW Ring, the Emporia Vue Gen2 with 16 CT clamps, the ESP32-S2-based “smart power meter”, and more. Feel free to check those out if you are interested in Wi-Fi CT clamps. MQpower LoRa CT clamp specifications Connectivity – LoRaWAN Measurement range Up to 100A or 250A models 1mA resolution Accuracy ±1% (>5Arms) ±3% (≤5Arms) Misc Onboard reboot button and LED status indicator FUOTA (Firmware Update Over […]

September 12, 2024September 11, 2024 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

Low-cost Raspberry Pi 5 HAT+ combines M.2 socket for NVMe SSD and PoE power input

With a cost of only about $25, Waveshare has recently introduced the PoE M.2 HAT+ for the Raspberry Pi 5, which is much cheaper than the similar N-Fuse PoE HAT that we’ve written about previously. As the name implies, this new Waveshare board supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) and features an M.2 slot to add NVMe SSD storage to the latest Raspberry Pi SBC. This new Waveshare HAT complies with the 802.3af/at standards and can deliver up to 25.5W of power to the Pi 5, enabling both power and network connectivity over a single Ethernet cable. Additionally, it features onboard 5V & 12V header outputs for powering additional devices like cooling fans, and there are also two LEDs for status. A fast storage device and the ability to power the device with ethernet makes this device suitable for applications such as network-attached storage, media centers, and edge computing applications. Waveshare […]

August 19, 2024August 19, 2024 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Toshiba TCKE9 reusable e-fuse features a fixed over-voltage clamp with adjustable overcurrent limit

Toshiba has recently introduced the Toshiba TCKE9 reusable e-fuse (electronic fuse) series, a new lineup of e-fuse ICs that can be used repeatedly, to protect power supply lines from various electrical faults like overcurrent, overvoltage, overtemperature, and short circuits. These new chips integrate various protection features into a single chip which simplifies circuit design and reduces component count compared to how a traditional protection circuit with multiple components is designed. This new line of products offers different ICs with different voltage ratings and adjustable current settings, alongside two reset modes auto-retry and latching. All these features make this e-fuse useful for applications like laptops, wearables, audio/video equipment, and industrial applications like automation systems, robotics, and many other applications. Toshiba TCKE9 reusable e-fuse Specification Input Voltage – 2.7V to 23V (Maximum – 25V) Output Current – 0 to 4.0A (Adjustable overcurrent limit – 0.5A to 4.0A via external resistor) ON Resistance […]

August 3, 2024August 2, 2024 by Sayantan Nandy - 4 Comments

Waveshare UPS HAT (E) for Raspberry Pi 5/4/3B+ takes four 21700 Lithium batteries, supports USB PD 3.0

The Waveshare UPS HAT (E) is a UPS expansion board for Raspberry Pi 5/4B/3B+ that supports four 21700 Lithium batteries and includes a battery fuel gauge IC for monitoring voltage, current, and capacity. The USB Type-C port is compliant with the PD 3.0 standard and allows for 40W fast bi-directional charging, and a high-power buck chip provides a 5V/6A output. Additionally, it supports I2C for real-time status updates. Previously, we wrote about the wider SupTronics Raspberry Pi 5 UPS HAT, which supports four 18650 batteries and delivers up to 5V with a higher current output of 5A. This HAT has no Type-C support and uses a DC jack and XH2.54 connector for 6V-18V input. Feel free to check it out if you’re interested in this product. Waveshare UPS HAT (E) specifications: Compatibility – Raspberry Pi 5 / 4B / 3B+ USB Interfaces USB Type-C Input/Output – Supports multiple voltage levels […]

July 10, 2024 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Waveshare PoE HAT (G) is a compact 25W PoE HAT+ for the Raspberry Pi 5

Waveshare PoE HAT (G) is a compact, easy-to-assemble “mini HAT” designed especially for the Raspberry Pi 5. The most unique thing about this PoE HAT+ is that Waveshare designed it so compact that it could fit in the stock Raspberry Pi case with the cooling fan attached. It supports the IEEE 802.3af/at network standard, delivering up to 5V/5A power output. Other features of the HAT+ include a 40-pin GPIO header, a non-isolated switched-mode power supply, and compatibility with 803.3af/at PoE routers or switches. This makes it ideal for remote monitoring, IoT applications, and networked devices. After the Raspberry Pi 5 was released in the last quarter of 2023, we saw Waveshare launch the PoE HAT (F), which also doubled as a cooling solution and followed the official Raspberry Pi PoE+ HAT introduced in 2021. Both modules are compatible with 802.3at (aka PoE+) and 802.3af standards and support up to 25.5 […]