Dennis Schneider Looks to USB Type-C as an Upgrade for Soldering Irons, Bench-Top Power Supplies

Not content with waiting for manufacturers to catch on, Schneider is on a mission to add USB Type-C wherever possible.

Gareth Halfacree
4 years agoHW101

Engineer Dennis Schneider is on a self-appointed mission to add USB Type-C connectivity to as many devices as possible — including his compact Ruideng DPH-5005 bench-top power supply.

While it has its detractors, the USB Type-C connector is undeniably handy. Looking set to — eventually — supplant the Micro-USB connector, USB-Type C offers a reversible design and the ability to carry up to 15W of power or 100W using the USB Power Delivery (USB PD) standard. But what do you do if the devices you use don't yet have USB Type-C connectivity? If you're Dennis Schneider, you add it yourself.

"I’m still on my trip to upgrade random devices to USB-C," Schneider says of his latest project. "Thinking about my trusty but heavy bench power supply (Gossen Konstanter), maybe having a small, lightweight power supply with USB-C would be a good idea. I mean, the Konstanter is really nice and quiet, but it’s huge. So I gave the fashionable power supply modules from Hangzhou Ruideng Technology a try. My model, DPH5005, offers 50V/5V on input and output and is a combined buck/boost regulator. Sounds good, doesn’t it? I ordered it with a case and just had to find a way to equip it with USB-C and USB-PD to source it from my 45 Watts power bank."

Supplied as a self-assembly kit, the Ruideng DPH-5005 underwent a fair amount of modification on Schneider's bench. "I wanted to have an additional input with USB-C/USB-PD to use the power supply on the go," he explains. "Depending on the power bank, you can source 45 Watt or 65 Watt. Also, I do not tolerate devices with loud fans on my desk — unless the gear is older than me."

Removing one of the power supply's two fans and adding ducting, installing a USB Power Delivery board sourced from China and capable of negotiating up to 20V, plus isolating the case from the shield of the newly-installed USB Type-C connector, Schneider ended up with a considerably more impressive device than originally delivered - and one which is capable of running entirely from a USB Power Delivery battery bank for on-the-go work.

Schneider had previously upgraded his TIS-100 programmable soldering iron to feature USB Type-C — originally via an adapter cable, later directly on the iron itself. The full DPH-5005 modification write-up is available on his blog.

Gareth Halfacree
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.
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