ANT BBPS Adapts USB-C, Adds Current Monitoring and Adjustable Output Voltage to Breadboards
Simple yet elegant addition for solderless breadboard prototyping.
There are many different ways to power a breadboard project. But they all share one common issue: how to get the power into the breadboard. An elegant-looking yet simple product from Digital Cool's Radu Alexandru Babos solves that problem. The ANT BBPS adapts breadboard power rails to USB-C, a wall-wart, or a battery.
ANT BBPS uses a Microchip ATtiny1604 microcontroller to set the output parameters, measure the output current, and display information on an OLED screen. An INA219 high-side current sense amplifier provides the current measurement.
The board plugs into a "standard" breadboard, sometimes called an MB102 breadboard, and sits off the end. The striking difference between ANT BBPS and other breadboard power supplies is the addition of the OLED screen. It displays the output voltage, current, and power consumption.
For input, ANT BBPS has a USB-C and a screw terminal connector. The USB-C is hard-wired with pull-downs for 5 volt operation. The screw terminal accepts wired connections, such as batteries.
Both input and output voltage are very flexible. A buck-boost circuit design supports an input range from 4.0 to 13 volt DC. The supply can provide 12 watts from 1.8 to 12 volt DC out. ANT BBPS also supports a digitally set current limit with 50 milliamp increments. The user can configure settings, adjust the output voltage (in 10 mV increments), and set the current limit using the push-button and potentiometer.
Since you would be using ANT BBPS during prototyping, it is excellent to see that the supply has some protection built-in. For example, an over-current condition displays an error message and disables the output until the user clears the fault indicator. Also, to accommodate working on either side of a breadboard, there is a feature to flip the OLED's orientation.
For more technical details about the design, check out this Gitlab repository, which contains PDFs of the schematics and Arduino code. To know when they are available for pre-sale, you can add your name to the mailing list on the ANT BBPS Crowd Supply campaign page.