Supplying Power to External Mods.

hey macro...

I have a question about this article because I may have a use for it. I am planing a project that would make perfect use for this...

I am planning on gutting a USB keyboard and making a new housing out of acrylic. In the new housing, I plan to include: the keyboard assembly (duh), a powered usb hub, and perhaps some LED's or EL wire...

The keyboard itself will use one of the 4 ports on the hub and I can use the remaining three to drive my optical mouse and my usb scanner and joystick/gamepad or whatever so I don't have to keep digging under my desk to connect and reconnect usb devices.

So, going to the pc from the new keyboard I will have the A/B cable going from the hub to a USB on my case, the power to the hub (5V), and power to the EL wire inverter (12V?). Ideally, I would sheath all these cables so it is clean and I don't have three separate wires leading from my keyboard to my PC.

First, I may be under a misunderstanding on molex pinouts.. it is my understanding that one line is 5v, one is 7v and the others are ground (overal delivering 12v total) but I could be wrong.

Looking at your article, you have two connectors on yellow and the third on red... does that mean that two of them are of the 7v variety and the other is 5v (or the other way around)?

Obviously, if I need 5v for the hub and 12v for the glow wire, then I need to wire my sockets accordingly... could you give an electronic noob a hand? I know this is long winded but I figured I needed to give you the whole picture for you to easily answer my delima

[edit] upon more investigation, I have learned that yellow is 12v and red is 5v. Your wiring makes more sense to me now. I understand why you have the yellow split into two and the yellow's cooresponding ground split to go with those sockets. I guess I was confused by the 7v trick some people use on fans. So I guess I make sure I use the correct ground with the correct positive rail and I am golden. So your end result was one 5v socket and two 12v's?

 

yes I ended up with 2 x 12V and 1 x 5V. Of course you can have as many of each as you want/can fit on the back plane.

The hub may be able to take it's power from the USB on the PC and hence not require an extra 5V supply. You will need to check that. So long as you are using low power devices which you seem to be it should be sufficient.

For the 12V you will need 2 core cable or if your hub does require the 5V rail then ideally 4 core cable to keep the 0V lines seperate. This will probably not be necessary and a 3 core cable could be used, so a common 0V is used by the 12 and 5V lines. If using the 3 core cable the 0V wire will only need to be connected to one of the plugs although both plugs need to be plugged in for everything to work.

Hope that makes sense?

 

I selected a powered hub because I have an IBM optical mouse and I figured it may be a little power hungry if I have a lot of other devices connected (I have read in the forums where people have had problems using optical mice on unpowered hubs) so I opted for some insurance. Plus, I figured, since I am doing this from scratch, I might as well do it all... the last thing I want to do is realize down the road that if I connect a forth device to the hub, my mouse dies.

Please forgive me... when you say using 1,2, and 3 core wire are you talking about the rating of the wire or the number of wire cores in the insulation? That's the only part that I am embarrased that I don't quite get, the rest is clear... at least until I get up to my armpits in this project and need emergency help...

 

The numbers refer to the number of wire cores inside the outer sheath. i.e. the number of conductors.

A USB port should be capable of supplying 0.5A current, since you are using a 4 port hub, that amounts to 2A plus a bit for the hubs own use. You can buy thin flexable 3 and 4 core flex from most DIY stores. The thing to ask for is 3 (or 4), core 0.5mm flex. It is often used for wiring low powered mains appliences such as table lamps.

 

understood... I owe you two beers...

 

np

 

I'm wanting to do something similar to my truck...

My concern is the plug for this bad boy... k, i read somthing about a "DC Power Socket"... I'm a big boy and can figure that out myself...

The question's simple: If i use this, do i just split the wire down the cord? Or can i actually alter the plug near the base? I haven't exactly ripped one apart before, and was curious before i went and bought some stuff...

thanks in advance

 

were did u get the cable ties from

 

Umm. I need to create this external powersupply for the mouse pad creation im doing. I went to rapid electronics and I am unable to find any of the products you used it keeps saying that there is no match for the product numbers in the search engine. help pleasE?

 

Nevermind I figured out how to finnaly get there catalogue and what you got is on page 165 the heavy duty 2.5mm DC power sockets. Now to figure out how to order me some

 

Just pick up the phone and tell them what you want and the next day the postman will deliver it.

Sorry couldn't help myself. The sooner they get online ordering the better. Glad you found the bits btw.

 

Hey macro man do you mind telling me where I can pick up some of that Fablon Velour for the Non slip base I can't seem to find it anywhere,.

 

B+Q and Hombase sell it.

 

I still havent found the right Feblon Valour you used. I went to that Homebase UK store and they had liek 7 different types of Fablon for wallpapering. Anyways I thought I was gonna have to order from Rapid electronics to get those DC sockets well as it turns out my local radio shack carries them. Heres the link http://www.radioshack.com/product.a...name=CTLG_011_003_005_000&product_id=274-1576 Is this the same thing that you used? I bought two 2.5mm and two 2.1mm sockets. also if these are correct how do I tell the difference between 2.1mm and 2.5mm if they both look the same size.

 

Those sockets look fine. As for the 2.5 and 2.1 sizes, that refers to the size of plug that fits the socket. So long as you get the correct plugs there will be no prob.

As for the Fablon try looking for self adhesive felt or baize. It is similar to the green stuff used on the bases of ornaments etc.

 

Hey macroman whats up. I just finished my external power supply mod today and did a write up with only 2 pics though on my site. Im sure I have giving credit where credit is due and by no means would I have any intent on plagerizing your article. Yea it might sound the same but with my fathers help I added a little bit of uniquess to this mod plus it also helps for people in north america for the products or what not since noteveryone lives in the UK. Well I hope you like.External Power Supply Mod

 

hi i'm new to all this modding so i have a few questions.

how do i connect the el wire/strip to the power plug that goes into the dc socket?

does this mod eliminate the need for an invertor? therefor no annoying sounds?

 

Hm..this has prolly been asked/answered b4 but I couldn't find it
Anyway here goes.
If I want to power, for example a cold cathadode which is 12v, do I just solder the power cables from the inverter into one of those plugs/jacks (whatever you call it). Then plug it into the PCI bracket?

Hope that I made sense here
Thanx in advance!