Different ways to make a 5 Volt supply
A 5V supply is essential for life. In this article I am going to explain a lot of ways to make such supply easily. You can use these 5 volt supply to energize the microcontrollers like ATmega8, PIC or even Arduino.
Moreover you can charge your cell phone through the supply as well.
I made a LED circuit through ATmega8 microcontroller to show the results of every kind of supply.
1-USB Port
The most efficient way to make a power supply is from your computer / laptop. A USB port of computer or laptop gives 5 volt of output with maximum of 450 mAmps current. If you connect a USB hub with the USB port, each port of USB hub will get 5 volt but the current capacity will be divided. To make a 5 volt supply, just take a ‘male USB connector’ from anywhere. You can get a male USB connector from scrap easily or buy a new one from electronics components shop.After getting the connector, solder the white wire at plus point and black wire at negative point. Make sure that the length of white wire should be more than black wire for safety purpose.
Warning: This method is easy and efficient but dangerous as well. It would be harmful for your computer if both wires get shorted. Computers have inner protection for surges. They block the USB ports for working until you restart your PC. Still be careful while using this method.
2 – Mobile charger as 5 Volt Supply:
A mobile charger is another good method to find 5 volt. If you have old Nokia mobile charger then it’s really easy for you to get supply. The outer part of pin is ground and inner part is positive. Take one white wire and one black wire. Insert white wire inside the hole of adaptor’s pins and round up the black wire around the pin.
You can use any other 5V adaptor as well.I have a simple 5V adaptor. Its pin is closely related to the old Nokia Charger pin. So, I used this adaptor to energize my circuit of ATmega8 and 9 LEDs.
Just connect wires accordingly and your supply is ready.
But the connections of this supply are not properly connected. To make a proper 5Volt supply, take a mobile charger or 5V adaptor which is not in use. Cut its pin and after finding positive and negative terminals you can use it as a proper supply. To check the positive and negative wires, use voltmeter first.
3 – Transformer:
Transformer method is the most common method to make a 5 volt supply. You will need following components for the purpose:
The output voltage of transformer can be 6 volts or 12 volts. I used a transformer which steps down the voltage to 6 volts. Then the 22uF capacitor will remove the ripples. In the end IC LM7805 will regulate the voltage.
(4) 9 volt Battery
The circuit of power supply through a 9 volt battery is same as above method with little less components. you will need following components
In the circuit diagram, the value of filtering capacitors is according to datasheet.
5- AA Cells:
The easiest method to make a supply of 4.5 volt is use 3 AA cells in series. 4.5 volt supply is near to 5 volt and it can work as well. I energized the same 9 LED circuit with 3 AA Cells in series.
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