{"id":167,"date":"2026-03-31T12:47:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T12:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/?p=167"},"modified":"2026-03-31T14:58:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:58:38","slug":"usb-wall-warts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/usb-wall-warts\/","title":{"rendered":"USB Wall Warts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have also increased my inventory to almost a hundred devices that are powered from a USB connector. The quality of the cable and the length of the cable are huge factors in having reliable device. After trying a number of things, my solution is to provide a power supply at the device that can convert 12-24V into 5V with a USB connection. (POE is an option, but at present most of my devices are NOT POE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many pieces to this problem that took years to find!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By far the first item I had to find was a low voltage connector.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

One day in 2000 I saw this LED connector show up on Amazon. (I’ve bought a thousand of them since.) I have NOT found a competing product! (Yet)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B081JG4KR5\"
Pluggable LED Wire Connectors, TYUMEN 24pcs 2 Pin Amazon.com<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All of mine are opposite from this marking. Boo!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The one on the left has two IDC openings and a stronger support that ends up smashing the insulation. The one on the right only has one IDC and the opening works well with my wire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are NOT perfect!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. The first ones I bought had no polarizing markings, so I went with the picture in the advertisement shown above. The later ones had a + mark on them in the opposite polarity than all of my current connections. I looked back and depending on where you look, the red wire can be on either side of the connector. (It’s really important that all of them have the same polarity.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. I had to figure out how to load the wire into them without damaging the connector.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. It’s actually tricky to get the wire onto all four of the IDC terminals inside it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. They have a very limited wire size, 22-20 works best.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. There are at least two versions that have one or two IDC connections.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. They do hold together and I’ve not had an issue with the connection between them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. I LOVE how small they are and how they have a good “Snap” connection.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The next item was twin lead wire that the connectors could use.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This picture is severely enlarged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I happened on wire that was used for garage door openers. The wire is normally run to the two sensors at the bottom of the garage door opening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    It’s available in over one-hundred-foot lengths, 20AWG and inexpensive!<\/strong>
    (In 2026 the product changed to cheaper Copper Covered Aluminum.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Most power supplies also use very similar wire that is clearly marked. (Usually black wire) They are NOT<\/strong> consistent on which wire is positive\/negative. For my purposes I chose the dark bar wire as positive since 80% of the power supplies are similarly marked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The third component was the USB power supply with connector.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    I’ve seen these inexpensive China power supplies for years, but getting the DC to them was the more difficult problem. Now that I have a connector and wire, they are looking much more inviting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    They have varying voltage requirements and most of them provide 3 amps with a very efficient switching power supply which is sufficient for all of the devices I currently have. (They typically do not get warm at all unless they are about to fail !) This particular one can take 55Volts which is insane for a 15W load. (A modern golf cart is 56 volts.) The voltage drop at 2A on 100 foot of 20AWG wire is roughly 4 Volts which would still provide 16W (3A@5V) of power at 12V. Raising the voltage to 14V drops the current to 1.5A and 18V drops the current to a little over 1A. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I had thought of increasing the AWG of the wire.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    I had a 40Ft run to a 12V light bulb that was protecting a garden water faucet in Pahrump Nevada. The light bulb draws about an amp of current so the voltage at the bulb was just a little over 9V. It was more expensive to buy 40Ft of 16AWG wire than a 14V power supply<\/strong> and not worry about the voltage drop. The same came to be true for multiple USB DC-DC converters. It was cheaper to raise the voltage than to purchase multiple 12V power supplies. I ended up with the majority of my devices running from a single 3A 18V power supply that powered my Amazon Echo Show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This wireless router can be mounted just about anywhere, and the 10W power requirements are so low that it could be run on one of the 24AWG pairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I have collected many USB power supplies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bitsofknowlege"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}