Alpenglow Industries' SwitchTrick Looks to Power Your Next Breadboard Project, From 0.9V to 6V
Adjustable from 0.9-6V and with 3-17V input, the SwitchTrick offers flexible power for solderless breadboard prototyping.
Alpenglow Industries' Carrie Sundra, fresh from the launch of the What the SOT?! and For the Love of SOD! surface-mount reference rulers, has released a breadboard power supply designed to offer adjustable voltages from 0.9V through to 6V for your next project.
"This is the SwitchTrick. It's a switching power supply, so it's efficient and doesn't get hot or waste power, and it's super tricked-out for all your solderless breadboard needs," Sundra explains. "It's based of the TPS62160, it takes 3-17V in, is adjustable from 0.9-6V out at 1A. It's a drop-down/buck converter, so the input has to be greater than the output. It outputs a single voltage, selectable by a jumper."
Those voltages are selectable from a range of commonly-required pre-set outputs: 1.8V, 2.5V, 3.3V, 5V, and 6V, plus 3.0V, 3.7V, and 4.2V, which Sundra explains are useful for simulating the output of a lithium battery at nearly-empty, nominal, and fully-charged levels respectively. For those who need custom voltages, they're a simple hardware hack away: Solder in a resistor and you can adjust the output to any level from 0.9V through to 6V.
"We also make it easy to power — there's a 2.1x5.5mm power jack for a 9V battery or wall supply, a USB connector for 5V, and a 2-pin JST PH connector to power it from a battery," Sundra continues. "There are also 2 large plated holes that can accept alligator clips, or you can insert the provided standoffs so that it's nicely supported off the edge of your breadboard. All except the alligator holes are diode-protected!"
"But wait, there's more! Don't want that diode drop in your input voltage line? Just solder a 2-pin header on and bypass it with a jumper. We also provide a header footprint for the enable and power good pins, so you can hook it up to a microcontroller. Is that all? No! There's a switch to turn it on and off, and a handy LED to show you when it's on. And wait! One more thing. Got a crappy cheap breadboard where the power rails are 0.050" off from usual? No problem, we got a duplicate power rail header pattern."
The SwitchTrick is now available from Alpenglow's Tindie store, priced at $29.