Cheap Arduino Power?

Krystal LeChuck

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Jun 10, 2014
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Krystal
What's the cheapest way you guys've found to turn 120V AC into 5V DC?

ʘ‿ʘ
Besides a wall plug usb supply? Those go for as cheap as 1$ in some places.
Else you can use a pcb mount power supply such as the RAC01-05SC or RAC02-05SC (one provides 5V 200mA, the other 5V 400mA, both with an input of 80-240V AC). But the safest way would be to make a transformer and a linear circuit. I'd say go for the usb charger thingy.
 
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honcho12

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Oct 12, 2014
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honcho12
I've only been seeing the wall plug usb supplies for ~$5, I guess I'll just have to keep looking

Thanks
 

Farasalt

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Mar 7, 2015
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Farasalt
I've picked up some wall power USB adaptors for as low as ~$3 in the past.

I don't generally trust the voltage supply being stable for anything below $10.
Past experience testing them has shown that the really cheap stuff is ~5v +/- 2v fluctuations
 

UnderSc0re

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Mar 17, 2015
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UnderSc0re
I would probably spend the $5 or more and not risk getting a crappy one that could damage your board. I had a similar dilemma when building my "$29" raspberry pi computer.
 

Slansickness

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Mar 14, 2015
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The cheapest you could use would probably be a phone charger if you have a few laying around like I do. If you are concerned about poor regulation, clamp the voltage with a 5v zener and a resistor, less than $1 if you have a local source.
 
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