Ultra compact GaN ATX power supply delivers up to 250 Watts

HDPLex GaN ATX Power Supply

To me, an ATX power supply is one of those big boxes delivering 500W+ inside a PC tower, but since it’s not possible to create hardware with much lower power consumption, HDPLEX has designed an ultra-compact 250W passive ATX power supply using the same GaN (Gallium Nitride) technology as found in some tiny USB-C power supplies. With a 170x50x25mm footprint, the company claims it is the world’s smallest ATX PSU, and it is especially well suited to SFF PC enclosures, but it should also work pretty well in other space-constraints applications with a board equipped with an ATX connector, or through an adapter board, or even some RGB LED projects. GaN ATX power supply specifications: Wattage – 250W (94% Efficiency). Input Voltage – 90V-264V 50/60hz DC output +3.3V up to 10A +5V up to 10A +12V up to 20A -12V up to 1A +5VSb up to 3A Max combined power […]

Bluetooth battery tester also serves as DC programmable load

18650 battery testing

While it’s possible to quickly check a battery with a multimeter, the DL24MP-150W Bluetooth battery tester and DC programmable load allows testing of all sorts of batteries from a 18650 battery to a lead-acid car battery, monitoring of multiple parameters with voltage, current, power, capacity, temperature, and more, and simulating a discharge. You can visualize the parameters on the integrated color display, or through Bluetooth connectivity, check out the parameters and history in an Android smartphone or a PC running Windows. The program also shows additional parameters like estimated CO2 emissions and electricity charge, plus export of parameters to a spreadsheet for further analysis. DL24MP-150W Bluetooth battery tester specifications: Test voltage – 2 to 200V Current: 0.2~20A Discharge power – Up to 150 W Sensor – Temperature sensor Adapter boards Charging board with DC jack, mini USB, micro USB, and USB Type-C port Battery test board for 18650, 26650, 14505 […]

The death of transformers? AC Direct DC Enabler is a solid-state solution for AC-DC power supplies

Amber Power Silicon 20x10mm

Power supplies would typically transform AC mains to DC voltage with the use of transformers, rectifiers, or filtering, but Amber Solutions’ AC Direct DC Enabler chip claims to do without those old tech electromechanical components by enabling DC extraction directly from AC mains through solid-state architecture. The company claims the technology leads to dramatically smaller size footprints, while simultaneously “delivering a much more dynamic, configurable power delivery capability”. Consumer, commercial and industrial electrical products manufacturers and semiconductor companies can already evaluate the technology as the AC Direct DC Enabler is now available as a demo kit. The company made bold claims even announcing the death of transformers: The magic of the Amber AC Direct DC Enabler is that it allows manufacturers to add modern intelligence and enhanced functionality to new and existing products using much smaller silicon chips to manage and deliver DC power. Using a single silicon chip, this […]

10,000 mAh Graphene power bank fully charges in 27 minutes (Sponsored)

Elecjet Graphene power bank

Most power banks are made of Lithium batteries that charge in 3 to 4 hours and are good for around 500 charge cycles. But Elecjet Apollo Ultra is a different beast equipped with a 10,000 mAh Graphene battery that enables fast charging in just 27 minutes and offers a much longer lifespan with over 2,500 charge cycles. In other words that means Apollo Ultra power bank is 5x faster and lasts 5x longer than most lithium-based power banks. Another way to look at it is that this graphene-enhanced 10,000mAh power bank can gather enough power in just 7 minutes to fully charge your phone. It can fast-charge your phone up to three times, charge two devices at once, and passthrough charging lets you charge Apollo Ultra at the same time. Elecjet Apollo Ultra specifications: Battery Capacity – 10,000 mAh or 40 Wh Full Charge Time – 27 minutes USB ports […]

RIDEN RD6012P USB and WiFi DC power supply connects to your PC or smartphone

DC Power Supply USB WiFi

Bench DC power supplies are usually adjusted with some buttons and rotary encoders, but RIDEN RD6012P DC power supply can be controlled from your PC via USB, and there’s RD6012P-W model that adds a WiFi module to adjust parameters from a smartphone running Android or iOS. Besides the “smart” functions, the bench power supply supports 0V to 60V voltage range and up to 12A current for a maximum of 720W output power and comes with an HD color display with 5 digits for each voltage, current, and power measurement, and a setup menu. RIDEN RD6012P(-W) power supply specifications: Display – 2.4-inch color HD display with adjustable brightness Host interface – Micro USB port and optional WiFi module (fitted to RD6012P-W model) Input voltage – 7 – 70.00V with 0.01V resolution, ±(1% + 5 digits) accuracy Output voltage – 0 – 60.000V with 0.001V resolution, ±(0.5‰ + 4 digits) accuracy Output […]

A deep dive into Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W’s power consumption

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W Power Consumption measurements with Otii Arc

When I completed my review of Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, I mentioned I would test the power consumption of the board later. It took a while, but I’ve finally come around it using Otii Arc from Qoitech and Otii software to provide some pretty power consumption charts, and even energy consumption. Since the Raspberry Pi Foundation recommends a 5V/2.5A power supply, I’ll first try to get as close as possible as 2.5A, then I’ll go through tricks to reduce idle power consumption to less than 75 mA / 375 mW, and finally check the energy consumption under various CPU core count and frequency. Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W Power consumption under load, with accessories I started with the latest Raspberry Pi OS Lite “Bullseye” image and connected my Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W board to Qoitech Otii Arc tools as shown below. It used to cost around $500, but […]

SONOFF releases HTTP API for SPM-Main power meter

Sonoff power meter DIY Mode

SPM-Main is the main unit of Sonoff Smart Stackable Power Meter using RS485 to provide up to 128 relays. Besides support for the eWelink mobile app, we were promised an HTTP API at the time of the launch in September 2021. ITEAD kept its promises and has now released the HTTP API for the SPM-Main smart power meter to allow IoT home automation users and developers to control SONOFF devices via existing home automation open-source platform or local HTTP client. It’s the same REST API used for SONOFF MINI & R3 smart switches, but it adds support for power monitoring as well. The API allows you to switch between eWelink and DIY modes as needed, and provides the following functions: Device Status Broadcast – Returns the switch status of all channels with current, voltage, power, overload status, RS485 communication status, and more Get the List of Sub-device – List of […]

Smart Power 3 – A $45 smart power analysis tool for embedded systems developers

Smart Power 3

Hardkernel has launched a number of popular Arm SBC’s with the ODROID family over the years, but the Smart Power 3 is a different type of product, as the ESP32-based smart power meter can help embedded systems engineers optimize their hardware and software power consumption and/or check for spurious power peaks during boot up or shutdowns. In the past, we’ve reviewed relatively expansive tools like Qoitech Otii Arc or gone the DIY route,  but at $45, Hardkernel offers a power monitoring solution that’s both inexpensive and easy to use, albeit with fewer features than Qoitech’s device. Smart Power 3 specifications: MCU – ESP32 dual-core microcontroller via ESP32-WROOM-32E module Output Channels – 2x output channels (Max 50W + 50W) via 2x 4mm banana jacks each Output Voltage – 3V DC to input voltage – 1V Output Current – 3A max per channel Measurement Voltage, Current, Power Maximum sampling rate: 200Hz (5msec […]

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