{"id":12434,"date":"2016-02-22T09:15:24","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T17:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.digilentinc.com\/?p=12434"},"modified":"2021-06-16T14:24:07","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T21:24:07","slug":"power-bricking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/power-bricking\/","title":{"rendered":"Power Bricking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome back to the Digilent Blog!<\/p>\n<p>You may have noticed awhile back that Digilent released a set of <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/powerbricks-breadboardable-dual-output-usb-power-supplies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PowerBRICK<\/a>s, which, as the name implies, are powerful little components that can produce a variety of voltages all while being run right from the USB port on your computer.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12502\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12502\" style=\"width: 509px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12502\" src=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Power-Bricks-top-600-509x600.png\" alt=\"Digilent's set of PowerBRICKs\" width=\"509\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Power-Bricks-top-600-509x600.png 509w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Power-Bricks-top-600.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12502\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Digilent&#8217;s set of PowerBRICKs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Based on the PowerBRICKs labeled voltage (3.3V, 5V, 9V, or 12V) users may get a corresponding negative or positive voltage of the labeled value from the PowerBRICK. But while all of the positive voltages are commonly used in a variety of everyday applications, what can you use the negative voltage for?<\/p>\n<p>The biggest thing that this negative voltage supply that PowerBRICKs enable are differential analog circuits. Perhaps you have an operational amplifier that needs to swing between two voltage ranges around a 0V point or a bi-polar <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/index.php\/how-to-use-a-stepper-motor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stepper motor<\/a> that you want to get as much torque\u00a0as you can from it.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12507\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12507\" style=\"width: 590px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12507\" src=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Oscillating-Voltage.png\" alt=\"Op-Amps can produce signals that oscillate around 0V\" width=\"590\" height=\"243\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12507\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Op-Amps can produce signals that oscillate around 0V.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Take the <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/index.php\/soda-can-theremin-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Soda Can Theremin<\/a> demo for example. This project needed three different reference voltages: 5V, 0V, and -5V. The 5V version of the PowerBRICK\u00a0is able to provide all three of these voltages, as well as more than enough current \u2014 at least for this particular application.<\/p>\n<p>What sort of project do you think a PowerBRICK would be perfect for?<\/p>\n<div class='watch-action'><div class='watch-position align-left'><div class='action-like'><a class='lbg-style6 like-12434 jlk' data-task='like' data-post_id='12434' data-nonce='712f7a0d3d' rel='nofollow'><img src='https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wti-like-post-pro\/images\/pixel.gif' title='Like' \/><span class='lc-12434 lc'>0<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class='action-unlike'><a class='unlbg-style6 unlike-12434 jlk' data-task='unlike' data-post_id='12434' data-nonce='712f7a0d3d' rel='nofollow'><img src='https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wti-like-post-pro\/images\/pixel.gif' title='Unlike' \/><span class='unlc-12434 unlc'>0<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div> <div class='status-12434 status align-left'>Be the 1st to vote.<\/div><\/div><div class='wti-clear'><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The PowerBricks are indeed powerful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":12503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[4322,1561],"tags":[104],"ppma_author":[4469],"class_list":["post-12434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessories","category-applications","tag-project-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - 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