I have a basic flip switch that I want to use to control whether a DC power socket is providing energy (from a connected battery pack). The power socket has three prongs, the switch has three, and there are the normal two wires (red and black) coming from the battery pack. What I'm not sure about is how to wire the three together so that when the switch is in one position the socket provides power (from the battery pack) and when the switch is in the other position the socket does not. For both the switch and the socket one prong is obviously in the center and the other two are indistinguishable.
Electronic – How to connect a DC socket to a switch
batteriespower supplyswitches
Related Solutions
There's nothing wrong with a power supply that has 10-15 connections; that's actually fairly typical for supplies in this class. You just need to understand what they're for.
For the power input, there will be connections for line, neutral and ground. There might be a separate "frame ground".
For the output, there will be at least one pair of output terminals (maybe more), possibly a pair of "remote sense" terminals (which help compensate for voltage drops in the wiring), and possibly terminals for remote adjustment or load-sharing.
The datasheet for the power supply should show how to hook it up for various application scenarios.
Smartphones chargers are constantly being upgraded to be more efficient. Many major mobile phone manufacturers are working to develop a rating system for charger energy efficiency in no-load mode. For example, Sony's new standard chargers (EP-300, EP-310 and EP-800,etc) have a no-load power consumption ≤30mW.
A 2012 study at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that an idle charger drew 0.26 watts on average; this figure goes up to 3.68 watts when a phone is attached and charging, and drops down to 2.24 watts when the phone is attached and fully charged. Overall, the cost is a handful of pounds over 12 months.
Here is the typical Standby Power Characteristics of the Texas Instruments 5.3V 2A Mobile Phone Charger Design (PMP4432):
From this I conclude that it will be effecient to have two smartphone chargers connected to two separate wall points each controlled by their own switch.
simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab
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Best Answer
While you don't provide a picture or part numbers for your dc socket or switch, these are common enough parts that general information works.
I am assuming your DC Socket looks like this:
And your switch is generally like this:
The socket has three prongs. One for the center, this is normally the one on the rear. One for the barrel, which is normally the one on the bottom, and the middle one is actually a switch, so that if you don't have a plug inserted, it can provide an alternative path. The two you are interested in are the rear and bottom ones. It varies if the center is positive or negative, that depends on your battery pack.
As for the switch, a three prong switch is usually a SPDT (Single Pole Double Throw). The image above shows how it is commonly set up. The center prong acts as a common pin, while A and B are the switch. Flip to one side A is connected to Common, flip to the other, B is connected to the common.
To act as a single power switch, you would want to connect one prong of dc socket to the Common prong of the switch, and the rest of the circuit to A (or B), leaving the other one empty. When you flip it to A, the connection is made to the socket, and power should flow. When you flip it to B, the connection is broken (Nothing being connected to B), giving you a power switch.