Cheap and Dirty 5-volt Supply
The old adage goes, "if it's stupid, but it works, then it's not stupid." Today I'm testing its limits!
This is possibly the cheapest and dirtiest 5-volt power supply money can buy. A small piece of strip-board, two pins and some big globs of solder is all you need to get "some" power out of a USB-A port.
The pitch of the conductors within the USB-A shell is 2.5 mm, 2.0 mm and 2.5 mm, so a 4-hole wide piece of perf-board gives almost exactly the right spacing between the 5 v and 0 v pins. Scraping away the two central conductors on the strip-board ensures we don't short anything out.
The space inside the connector's shell is a little thicker than the perf-board itself, so heaping on bigger globs of solder will help fill the gap and make the connection.
I can't guarantee how many amps you can pull. I can't guarantee this won't physically damage your USB-A sockets. I certainly can't guarantee you won't burn down your house with this hack. I can say for certain, though, in a pinch you can get a small fan spinning.
2025-11-07