The XIAO Powerbread is a breadboard power supply and meter compatible with XIAO RP2040 or ESP32 USB-C boards and equipped with a color LCD display showing real-time voltage, current, and power consumption for 5V and/or 3.3V power rails.
Breadboard power supplies are nothing new. We’ve written about several over the years including the Toaster board with adjustable voltage from 5 to 16V, the SwitchTrick switching power supply board, and the MEGO portable breadboard power supply with a built-in battery. The XIAO Powerbread only supports 5V and 3.3V power rails, but its main selling point is its integrated breadboard power meter function.
XIAO Powerbread specifications:
- Supported USB-C modules
- General purpose MCU – XIAO RP2040, XIAO RP2350
- WiFi / Bluetooth MCU – XIAO ESP32S3, XIAO ESP32C3, XIAO ESP32C6
- Display – 0.96-inch color TFT LCD with 160×80 resolution and ST7735S SPI controller
- Power monitoring – 2x TI INA3221 sensors connected over I2C for voltage, current, and power monitoring
- Breadboard pins
- 4x 5V pins
- 4x 3.3V pins
- 10x GND pins
- Tx/Rx UART and 2x GPIOs
- Misc
- Power output switch for 3.3V and 5V outputs
- Dial wheel switch for UI rotation and menu selection
- Power Supply
- Input – 5V DC via USB-C port on XIAO module
- Output via breadboard-compatible pins
- 5V up to 1.5A
- 3.3V up to 1.5A
- MT7900 power switch with 1.5A over current protection
- TI TPS54202DDCR DC-DC step-down convertor up to 3.3V @ 1.5A output
- Dimensions – Breadboard compatible
The PCB schematics and PCB layout and the Arduino firmware can be found on GitHub. The developer – Nicho Deng – also released pre-built images for all five support XIAO modules which can be found on the same repository.
The user interface can show both Channel A (5V) and Channel B (3.3V) in monitor mode, or one channel with a chart in “Line-Chart” mode and one channel and extra info in Statistic mode. It’s also possible to rotate the display to landscape mode instead of portrait mode with the channels shown side-by-side. Future firmware updates include support for USB-serial communication and PWM generation. Since XIAO ESP32 modules are also supported, it would be nice to enable remote monitoring through WiFi or Bluetooth, but it’s not on the to-do list yet.
Nicho sells the XIAO Powerbread on Tindie for $25 with a XIAO RP2040 module. There’s currently no option to purchase the baseboard only or kits with other XIAO modules based on RP2350 or ESP32.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Cool idea, pity they don’t ship to Belgium
Damn, the beat me to it. About to build a similar jig but a more exciting one.
Contact me via https://www.cnx-software.com/contact-us/?noamp=mobile once it’s available.