After toying with the relays and Arduino I found that the diodes weren’t necessary – especially since the relay is latching, and current will be flowing both ways, so putting a diode in each direction would just create a short.
As such, I made some modifications to the board and put it into Gerber files using Eagle, uploaded them to BatchPCB, and am now waiting for the first one to arrive so that I can populate and test it. In the meantime, I need to get around to packaging the WootOff software for distribution, and come up with some documentation of this project that’s more readable than this series of blog posts.
Here’s the board schematic of the Prototype board:
USB Power Shield v1.0 - Prototype
Comments 2
Keep up the hard work! I’ve been looking for a way to do exactly this after the recent sale of woot-off lights for their 5th year anniversary. I’m sure many others are too. You could probably make a nice profit from this project.
Posted 14 Jul 2009 at 12:06 AM ¶I’m glad to report that the PCB came out in perfect working condition – there will be a full post soon, but just thought I’d throw that out there. There are some changes I’d like to make – namely removing the Vin LED along with removing the scratchpad and consolidating things down to make a smaller (cheaper) board.
I’d be interested in getting a dozen or so boards made if enough people are interested. If not, I’ll make the final design public on BatchPCB so others can order individually. It’s a great beginner’s project that incorporates a lot of the basics together.
Posted 14 Jul 2009 at 12:27 AM ¶Post a Comment