How to use a breadboard power supply module for DIY learning electronics 

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Glad it helped, thanks for watching!

WRONG here is the datasheet for the module components101.com/sites/default/files/component_datasheet/MB102-Datasheet.pdf

@@peatmoss4415 Interesting, apparently the USB port is both taking as well as providing power. If there is no other power supply connected, it functions as receiver, in case there _is_ another power supply, it provides 5V of power.

@@peatmoss4415 The USB connector is (stupidly) HOST or A connector so it definitely should supply power, not receive it. Very stupid design because who needs to supply power from USB connector from a bread board? Device or B connector would be useful for bread bording USB DEVICEs. The datasheet / design is wrong. If you play by the rules and only connect legit USB devices to this board then no device will supply power from the DEVICE to the HOST. USB OTG might do that but that is much more complex than what this board is capable of and the connector on this board is the original USB A / HOST connector from the days gone by when OTG was just a glint in the designers eyes.

@@Axel_Andersen just got one of these. it comes with a shielded male-male 30cm long USB-A to USB-A cable

Indeed the usb is for both power in and power out. I have a (very stupid) Y cable with USB-A, USB-A, USB mini from I dont know where, now it is very useful for powering my arduino nano and the power module both off a single USB hub. It is like to most stupid and useful thing on my desk right now!

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Glad it helped!

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Glad to hear, thanks for watching!

Thanks for the tip!

yeah i didnt - definitly dont plug it into your computer almost just fried the board and the computer :/

yeah i think one of these busted my nano

@@litedeveloper lol, why did you needed to connect the module to your pc?

​@@Deriko31they probably thought they could program and arduino via the usb

Sweet!

Those are good tips. I don't even go up to 0.5A.

Thanks for the tips!

mb102-ps has protection against it, as far as I've seen. So, I should use + inside and - outside?

Ugggh, yeah, some pedals want 9V center positive, some 9V center negative, some other stuff like korg volcas want 9V center positive, but with a slightly smaller barrel connector. Check check check that polarity!

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Glad to hear! Thanks for watching!

Nice, I got one with an Arduino kit too.

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Nice :)

Very cool. If I had space, I'd start doing model railroading.

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Glad to hear! Thank you for watching!

I also believe the 3.3 volt powers the led but in not sure

Nice :)

That's pretty interesting!

You can probably connect them in series only if each one has it's own independent power source. If they share a power source, then it is probably a short circuit where the positive of one connects to the negative of the other.

With LEDs I usually use at least 220 ohm with 5 volts which is what a breadboard power supply provides. And at least 470 ohm for 9V and at least 1,000 for 12V.

I think you will be OK, but from my experience these units tend to fry easily so it probably best to not push them to their limit if you can help it.

@@Electronzap thanks for the response , I'll try to find a 9 v adapter

There are some great high quality adjustable voltage power adapters out there. There are also some that are complete junk and even a few that are dangerous. But, they really do come in handy for things.

You said, "... when both sides have a load..." and if you meant both sides of the breadboard, in this case one side is drawing from the +5V regulator and the other from the +3.3V regulator. Are you saying the max 500mA is the combined current of the two regulators?

Bench power supplies are the best option, but if you have a 9V adapter or batteries and/or need portability, then breadboard supplies are useful. And, I have always lived in Minnesota in and around the Twin Cities, so I probably talk just like the average Wisconsinite.

I like Amazon. Just search for breadboard power supply. Probably want a pack of 5, it's easy to fry them and they are less than $2 each. Also need an AC to DC converter with the right size barrel plug.

@@Electronzap my apologies I have a power supply. I meant like I didn’t have a barrel plug to power the power supply. Would I have to buy an oscilloscope like the one you had with the barrel plug or is there a way I can just buy barrel plugs? Trying not to spend extra money on an oscilloscope rn lol.

@@daltondelaney9534 it's a standard adapter you plug into the wall and has a 5.5mm X 2.1mm barrel plug. I'd post a link to one but I'm on my phone at work. I use one made by Soulbay that I got from Amazon. It has a number of plugs and an adjustable voltage. Need to make sure you don't exceed 9 volts with a breadboard power supply.

@@Electronzap gotcha I’ll give it a look. If you don’t mind go ahead and send me the link later if you get a chance I’ll be busy working also until tonight. Appreciate the information!

@@daltondelaney9534 amzn.to/3w4lEr6 is the one I bought a couple times. That's an affiliate link.

I don't think you usually connect the 5V supply to an arduino. Just the grounds.

Yup, they all go in. 2 for each breadboard supply row. I would guess that they have 2 pins per row so that it is less likely to lose electrical contact and is held in place better.

The USB plug on this module is an output. You only power this module through the barrel plug. You can always get USB to alligator clip adapters if you want to power something directly from USB. Plus there's probably new breadboard modules that you can find that have more power source options.

Power supply that you plug into the wall and can set the voltage and maximum current is generally the best to use. These 5V modules powered by a converter that plugs into the wall are good if you only want to work with 5V and save some money. Can also use batteries if you want, but they aren't as easy to use. It's good to learn how to use all of them, So I've made a number of videos covering all of them.

I was told, that applying power to USB will power the pins on the board, which makes sense since they are probably connected directly together. Unfortunately power banks tend to quickly shut off pretty quickly if there is not enough current asked of them. I think somewhere around less than 0.5A

@@Electronzap OK usb is just connector, we could power it via USB wall adapter then. They are more common. But obviously not use both connectors as input at once.

@@orion310591RS There is no legit USB cable that can be used to connect a wall adapter of power bank which has a HOST connector to this board which also has a HOST connector. Such a cable is banned by the standard and would be bad because it would allow you to connect two HOSTs together which would then try to feed each other.

It should transfer a USB voltage to the board, but that's not the intended way to power it. I just bought some USB to alligator clip cables to use a USB power source to power circuits. And these cheap board should never be used to power sensitive electronics. Just basic circuits you are testing.

Thanks! Glad to hear :)

These modules are voltage regulators, which means that they basically just make it harder for current to flow as needed to maintain a lower voltage than the main supply voltage. So, If you only give it 5V to begin with, then I am guessing that it could only provide a maximum of about 3.5V. They are usually powered with 9V, but if you power the module with 7V, then it should still be easy for it to provide 5V. I don't have a diagram for the module.

I've heard that other people use the USB to provide power to the breadboard. So looks like it is OK to use the USB connector either way. I'm sure it's connected directly to the pins going into the breadboard.

You need circuitry that quickly cuts power when high current flows, or that limits maximum. Not an easy thing to add to this setup.

The module is powered with the 9V barrel plug only. The USB port is for providing 5V USB power to something else.

@@Electronzap got it. Many thanks. It would be nice to have these usb chargers power breadboards though since they are easier to find

@@janakaone There are connector cables that you plug one end into a USB supply (such as a portable power bank), and then has alligator clips on the other end that you can clip to pin connectors on the breadboard for 5 volts. Many USB power supplies quickly turn off at low current though, which is very annoying..

@@Electronzap many thanks for the information. I didn't know about that issue with usb chargers before.

Just gotta browse websites that sell power supplies for one that meets your needs and doesn't cost too much.

Didn't know that, but I have a hand crank generator where the USB output also provides whatever the voltage is set to instead of always providing 5V, so not surprised.

I'd look up the specs when buying them,, but I don't think you want to use more than 9V with any of these breadboard power supplies. And I think they all get fried if they have to provide more than about 500mA of current.

@@Electronzap how many amps did u used on ur video?

As far as I know, it is safe to power the rails by connecting a powered USB cable into the USB port instead of using a barrel plug.

Connecting positive directly to negative.

need> 360 ohm since the red led is 2v 0.02amp.

If it is 5V with no load, but drops to a lower voltage with a load, then I suspect that you are drawing too much current from the module. The modules also get damaged easily, I bought about a dozen of them when I was using them a lot.

You wouldn't, this would be a separate power source for a circuit controlled by an Arduino. The arduino could be used to control a transistor, and this could power the circuit that is connected to the transistor, for example. I'd recommended watching a bunch of arduino videos until it makes sense.

I don't keep track of what kits are available anymore. At one time I tried to build circuits that only used components available in the kit that I thought was the best buy at the time, but almost nobody bought those kits anyways. I just now quickly browsed the elegoo component kits on amazon, and they still look like something I'd recommend for someone looking for a starter kit.

I don't know for sure.

Haven't used one of these in a long time, especially testing it in the off position, but I am pretty sure that the off position disconnects power to the positive rail, and I am guessing that the negative rail is still connected to the power supply.

You can't.

like if I have only one rather than two power supplies?

Breadvoard power supplies power each rail separately, so you should have no problem powering just one. You want to set the jumper so there's no voltage on the side where the pins are floating to reduce the chance of a short circuit.

@@Electronzap Thanks alot!

12V works, but I fried some boards while using 12V. I think that's their absolute limit, and anything above that causes a voltage spike above 12V. Might have just been my boards though and how much current I was using. I can't speak for other people's experiences.

@@Electronzap I have one of these breadboard power modules and I tried a 12v to power it. I tested the output with an oscilloscope. I get 3.4v on one side and I get 10.0v from the 5v side. If I power it with USB only, I get 3.4v and 5v. I probably already fried something if it can't regulate the 12v input, but it was what I had on hand. Oh well.

There's cheap voltage buck converters with USB output. These units are likely to be fried around 500mA, and many USB devices these days need 2000mA (2 amps). You could just get a buck converter with barrel jack output if you still want to power these units with a high voltage solar panel.

@@Electronzap I found a solution - a $6 USB converter that could source over 3 amps if needed. It takes a 12v input, provided by a 12v regulator on the panel.

@@digitexstudios5634 good! Anything power related is best to just buy exactly what you need, unless you really want the learning experience of doing it DIY.

@@Electronzap Well, i don’t actually have a soldering iron yet. Still setting up shop. So anything is done by crimping and heat shrink or on a breadboard.

@@Electronzap People say there’s no such thing as free energy... But solar sure seems free!

Probably not good. I'd make sure it's outputting the right voltage.

You use a standard barrel jack power source to power the breadboard, they typically come center positive and 9 volts works well. Then the modules are made where the left side of each rail is positive while the right side of each rail is negative, which is how most breadboards color code those slots. I can't think of any way to power a breadboard supply backwards unless you happen to come across one of the rarer center negative 9V supplies.

Got it, thanks for the help👍

@@Electronzap By the way, my 9v battery ran out and all i have is a plug in wall transformer with a variable polarity and voltage. The problem is the rated current. I have a module that needs 1A but my wall transformer outputs 1.2 Amps. Is it ok if i plug it in or its too much for the module?

No, this module is absorbing power from a single supply to get lower voltages. You need special circuitry to get a higher voltage from a single source.

what if i tried?? will the module be damage??

@@ralph-ralphdeguzman6091 connecting any positive to that board, directly to any negative on that board is a short circuit. I accidently short circuited them before, and after a few times they were fried for good. It won't power anything else while short circuited, so even if it protects itself and doesn't fry, there's no point doing so.

Thank you for the information.. then i wont try it.. so i can use it any longer..

Yeah it needs to be plugged in to use it. There's no battery.

Oh ok. Thanks for the heads up and the heart, i thought my module might be broken

same, but I've used the wrong polatity, not shure if I have fried it yet

I think you are referring to the jumper cables. They are wires covered in plastic.

@@Electronzap Oh okay thanks I just bought this starter kit and the cables I got are pretty long so it makes a mess and this looks a lot cleaner :)

No, not even close. I think most of them have a maximum limit of 0.5A.

It's been a while, I don't use them much anymore, but I think I fried most of mine while powering them with 12V. I decided to only use 9V.

My adjustable AC to DC wall wart supply outputs more than 12V when I set it to 12V. I think that's how I fried some of these units. Long ago I concluded to just use 9V. I'm guessing that 12V is the absolute maximum limit.

ya, tbh I can still work with what I have now, just gotta put some ressistors to drop the voltage down ig

No, these are meant to reduce the voltage to the breadboard from about 9V to either 5V or 3.3V.

​@@Electronzap How to make it reliable, some circuit need at least 9v in order to work well

That's a bummer.

I don't think they have a specific name. I just see them being called something like breadboard power supply module.

@@Electronzap I meant the thing used to power the breadboard power supply module

It has very little use IMO. It only outputs 5 volt to a device you connect to it. In theory if you are bread boarding a USB HOST controller then it could be used for that, but who design HOST devices, 99% of hobbyist will be bread boarding UBS DEVICEs and for that you need DEVICE connector. Mind blowing short sighted.

Yeah, they don't usually come with anything else.

It might be fried. I fried some when I was using 12V to power the module, and when I short circuited them a few times. That was a while ago though, so I don't remember much. I bought about 15 of them to replace ones that I fried.

Thanks for watching!

(Good) converters don't waste much power whereas regulators always do. Converters store some power from a power supply, and then rapidly releases it at either a higher or lower voltage. There's some losses but you get almost all the same power in as you get out with converters. For example, if your load gets 5V 1A (5W) of power, then the power supply might be providing a little more than 10V 0.5A (5W) of power with a converter. It converts voltage into more current, or current into more voltage. Regulators just make it harder for current to flow in order to turn extra power supply voltage into waste heat so that the load gets a lower voltage. To power a 5V 1A (5W) load, a power supply might be delivering 10V 1A (10W) of power to the regulator. If you could find a 10V battery to power the examples above, then the battery is going to die about twice as quickly with a regulator than a converter.

Glad to hear, thanks!

Oh sorry I misread in my earlier reply, you can easily find breadboards for somewhere around a dollar or 2 each on Amazon and Ebay. Can easily get them in kits with other components you want. The cheap breadboards are plenty fine if you aren't going to use them all the time. I don't have any more info on if boards are high quality or not than anyone else, I just go by price and reviews. The ones with metal backings tend to hold up well when used a lot.