My boards from OSHPark arrived yesterday. They look fantastic. I was very tempted to put a bay-light together before bed. It’s my first round board. That’s when I realized I had not ordered the LM7512 12v voltage regulators. I made a quick check of the schemtatic and LED resistor calculator to confirm that I had designed the circuit with a 12v operating voltage. This provides more possibilities in terms of where it can be used than a 24v operating design.
So I skipped the critical part! There was nothing else to do but order them and wait. Tayda is celebrating the “water holiday” which means nothing happens until they get back. If I was in a hurry I’m sure DigiKey or Mouser would have had the part, but I’m not and I like Tayda. They have great prices, super accurate picking, and cheap shipping.
Maybe next week….
Now, my more astute readers may notice the square boards which are OrangePS v1.1. Those boards came in too and I’ll try to get around to assembling them and testing them. This board has lots of possibilities. It’s initially designed to be a very stable 5v power supply for an OrangeOne Single Board Computer…. aka Orange SBC. However, 5v is also the magic number for all number of USB chargers and other goodies. So I may branch the design and create a 5v USB charger at some point in the near future. Yes, you can buy them, but most of them are not designed for 24v input current that is found on my motorhome. Besides, do you *really* think a $2 USB power source uses a design that places voltage stability high on the agenda? I don’t. By the time you factor in middlemen you are talking about a 25 cent item at the manufacturer.
