Electronic – 12v to 5v for a vintage radio project

power supply

thanks you in advance for any assistance. I am converting this old AM radio into a bluetooth speaker with an echo dot built in for my 11yo daughter.
Old Radio

I removed the inner hardware and tubes. Wow beautiful stuff.

I purchased this amplifier to run the speakers. I set it up using a 12V 1amp power supply I had on hand. The amp with the speakers sounds great.
link to amplifier

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What I need is a reduction in the 12v down to 5v so I can run the echo dot, it has a USB connection.
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I am looking for a plug-and-play option. Would this work?
LM2596 DC to DC Step

Thanks again for any help, apologize for my ignorance.

Best Answer

It would work, but not with your power supply. The echo dot uses a 5.2V 1.8A supply. With perfect conversion, that is 9.36 Watts from your 12V 1A or 12W power supply.

Your amplifier is a max 100 Watt stereo amp and the Amazon page recommends a 3A supply. Not sure what speakers you are using, so we can't say how much power you are actually using.

In both cases, you don't have enough power to drive both the echo and the amp from that one supply. Easiest thing is to run a second power supply for the echo dot. The extra cable can be velcroed to the other one to prevent clutter. If not, get a bigger 12V supply and honestly any car 12V to 5V 2A adapter to power the echo dot.

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