BATTERY PACKS I sure hope somebody helps!

Community Chit Chat
1

To be honest I don’t know much about electronics. And I think I don’t belong here because what I’ve seen you all are way too smart. But I thought I’d ask for help because I’m desperate to finish my project. Here’s my question:

QUESTION:

I have 2 gadgets both run on 5 volts. I want to add an on and off switch and connect everything to one battery pack. And for future reference if I had three or four gadgets all being the same voltage and I want to have an on and off switch and again everything connected to one battery pack. What can I do, what should be the configuration and the voltage of the battery pack?

As I stated before I know zip about electronics. Don’t understand the diagrams, etc. The easiest way to convey information to me would be similar to “the leg bone goes to the thigh bone…”

I’m so embarrassed!

Thank you for your consideration hope to hear from someone soon,

Michael

2

All you need is something like the switch in the link below. Just cut the positive wire coming from your battery pack and connect each end to one of the terminals on the switch and you’re good to go. Everything down stream of the switch will turn off when the switch is off.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9276

3

You may want to consider one of these:

[DC Barrel Jack Adapter - Male

for your battery.

Your devices could use these:

[DC Barrel Jack Adapter - Female

The screw terminals might be easier to deal with than what most switches use for connecting.

Simply disconnect the plugs to power down.

You can then easily add more devices with a 2.1 x 5.5 splitter.

Here’s an eight-way but others are available:

[Amazon splitter link

If you need a switch, here’s an idea:

[Amazon switch link](Amazon.com)](Amazon.com)](DC Barrel Jack Adapter - Female - PRT-10288 - SparkFun Electronics)](DC Barrel Jack Adapter - Male - PRT-10287 - SparkFun Electronics)

4

Thank you so much Brow and YellowDog! I appreciate more than you’ll ever know that you took the time to help out a doofus. If I can oppose on both of you for one more question:

So I have two 5v gadgets connected to the battery pack, how many volts should the battery pack be?

5

Furiousangel:
So I have two 5v gadgets connected to the battery pack, how many volts should the battery pack be?

If you use a splitter or one of those screw terminal dealies with the two devices’ wires connected to the same points, they’re electrically parallel. Components or devices that are parallel have the same voltage across their terminals. [Wikipedia puts it this way: In a parallel circuit, the voltage is the same for all elements. This means you can use a 5 volt power supply for the two 5 volt devices.

Note that 5 volt batteries are uncommon. Consider using a 12 volt battery and maybe [an automotive charger adapter to bring it down to 5 VDC.](Amazon.com)](Series and parallel circuits - Wikipedia)

6

Thank you!