LaFonera Hardware Power from USB

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Revision as of 04:09, 9 April 2007

You are here: DD-WRT wiki mainpage / LaFonera / Hardware / Power from USB

The LaFonera is a nice piece of hardware, but it is somewhat limited by it's power suply which needs to be plugged into a wall power socket. Woudn't it be nice to be able to take your LaFonera with you, to use as a portable access point, or to provide wireless access for a laptop? I think so. :)

As we know from looking at the hardware specifications for the LaFonera, it takes DC power at 5v. Just like USB ports provide. Only one problem - the LaFonera's transformer is rated at for 2000 miliamps at 5v. USB ports can only provide 500 miliamps per port. If the load gets to high on the LaFonera, it may become unstable and crash. However, in my initial tests it seems to perform fine running only off a single USB port on a laptop on it's own batteries.

This mod is quite simple, it requires no modification to the LaFonera, just a custom power cable which you will need to make.

Contents

Parts Needed

These are the parts and tools I used.

Parts

  • An old (no longer needed) AC-DC transformer with the same plug that the LaFonera uses. Or you can buy the plug from an electronics shop. Maplin in the UK sells (I think) the right connector here: 2.5mm DC Power Plug.
  • An old USB plug with a few cm of cable left on it. Or you can buy a USB plug from an electronics shop. Maplin in the UK sell them here.
  • Some 2 core cable if you are not scavenging it from the old transformer.
  • Electrical tape, or something else to insulate the joins from each other with.

Optional:

  • Heat Shrink Tubing

Tools

  • Soldering Iron + Solder
  • Sharp knife
  • Wire cutters

Optional:

  • Lighter to shrink heat shrink tubing
  • A Multimeter - very usefull for checking which cable is connected to what etc.

Creating the Cable

  1. Cut the plug off the transformer cable leaving enough cable for your power cable.
  2. Strip about 1 cm of the insulation from the wires, and split them apart a litle way.

I will finish writing this tomorow... http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2580/sleep21jh0.png http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/7981/sleep07yf3.gif -Hal 06:09, 9 Apr 2007 (CEST)