For years I wanted to build a 12v Distribution Box with several different outputs and various voltages. I never got to building such a unit. The commercial units available is way to expensive and need to be imported. Setting up a DMR Bridge once again reflected the need for some kind of distribution box. With several Raspberry Pi's running in the shack from 220v wall-warts, loadshedding made it very difficult to keep everything alive. Finally I decided to construct my own 12v DC Distribution Unit for Raspberry Pi's and LTE Modems that provide Internet to the Pi's. I needed 12v- as well as 5v DC power. Now in two previous articles available HERE and HERE a very useful step down power supply from Arduino was used by Christi ZS4CGR. Two of these units would take care of the 5v DC side of things. Two X60 Sockets supplying 12v DC from a 100 aH battery would bring in the 12v DC. I combined everything together in a small package which now runs the following units whether there is loadshedding or not:
- MMDVM Hotspot (5v DC)
- APRS Raspberry Pi Internet Gateway (5v DC)
- DMR Bridge via AllStar and Echolink (5v DC)
- Huawei B525 LTE Router / Modem (12c DC)
I still have the following outputs open and available for future projects:
6 x 5v USB Sockets
1 x 12 v XT60 Socket
Enough writing. The images provide more than enough detail. The unit is fully operational and was tested this afternoon during a period of loadshedding. So far everything works great.
Images: (Click on images for larger view.)
