We don’t quite know what to call this doohicky – some folks refer to it as a USB Condom but that’s specifically for when the data lines on a USB port are disabled so that a device charges without data access. This board is a little more advanced: you can manually switch each of the 4 wires on or off for a variety of uses:

• If you want to have a ‘charge only’ device, simply switch the D+ and D- lines off
• For power monitoring, you can do the high side (disable the V+ line) or the low side (disable the GND line)
• For tapping into the USB signal, or monitoring the power voltage, keep all the switches on and probe the labelled pads on either side

With the onboard 4-DIP switch, you can flip to your heart’s content. The only thing to note is the C&K SDA04H1SBD switches are technically rated for 5V 100mA so we designed this for low-current-draw microcontroller project board hacking. (You could probably go a bit higher but don’t tell anyone!)

Specifications

• Dimensions: 39.7mm x 19.0mm x 9.5mm
• Weight: 4.9g

Resources

• EagleCAD PCB files