Higher power modules - >65W

[TapuGithub]

Hello!

Thanks for the great project!
I've almost bought it, but then understood that most of mini-pcs in my 10" rack are rated for 95w. Is there a possibility that in the future we'll got PD modules up to 100W? That i think will cover second most popular power-bracket of mini-pcs. Something like 20Vx5A is still inside PD 3.0 and won't need EPR.
Even Optiplex 3070 you showed in the video are coming with 180 W PSU.

[thedsider]

I, too, am holding off on buying in because of the 65W limit. I run a couple Lenovo P330s that exceed that limit.

I know you can get PD buck converters in higher ranges like 100W, so assuming the componentry in the PCB design can handle it, and I don't exceed the max wattage of the PSU, it should be fine. But it would be good to understand if there's any other limiting factors of the PCB.

[mallcott]

Hi all, thank you for the comments and the support.
I was able to find a few 100-140W boards, but they're larger and output significantly more heat. The PCB in it's current state is built around 65W to each module, and as the outputs are fused for safety they won't handle 140W even if you did manage to mount a 140W delivery board on.
Higher output options are definitely something I'm going to work on because there's a demand for it. I'll look at developing my own 140W PD board, then designing a new PCB around that. But that's going to take a little bit so unfortunately there's no option for higher power output just yet.

[TapuGithub]

Thanks @mallcott! It enough to know that's in your backlog :). If you'll need any help with it - let me know.

P.S. Also oversubscribing it looks like a good idea - at least as a option.

[hodlin3614]

Maybe you should drop the onboard output fuses. Its a duplicate function as all the modules already have one on the input.

[1eyeITguy]

+1 on this. I'm in the same boat running Dell OptiPlex 7070 Micros with 90W supplies.
I did some digging on what it would actually take. The current PD boards appear to be based on the XPM52C (Fine Made Microelectronics), a highly integrated buck + PD controller in a QFN16 package. It's a great little chip, with 8-30V input that accepts the Meanwell's 24V rail perfectly, but it's architecturally capped at 20V @ 3.25A = 65W.
The natural upgrade path would be commodity modules using chips like the SW3566, which support 20V @ 5A = 100W at standard PD 3.0 (no EPR needed, as you noted). These are available in very similar small-module form factors on AliExpress for roughly the same price point as the XPM52C boards, so the BOM cost impact should be minimal.
Two things worth flagging for the designer though:

PCB trace widths. Going from 3.25A to 5A per port means the power routing on the carrier PCB would likely need to be revisited. At 5A the traces need to be meaningfully wider to handle the current safely.
The Meanwell HRP-300-24 becomes the bottleneck. At 14A/336W total, you can only sustain roughly 3.3 ports at full 100W simultaneously. A 5-port 100W design at full load would want something like the HRP-450-24 (18.8A) or HRP-600-24 (25A). Worth considering whether a higher-wattage PSU variant of the BOM makes sense alongside the board change.

Would love to buy the kit if a 100W variant ever materialises. This project is genuinely one of the most elegant homelab power solutions I've come across. Thanks for sharing it openly.

[snoopy82481]

I wouldn't mind seeing an option for both 90w and 65w on the same board. I have a mix of Dell 3040's and 7060's, which have different power requirements. I'll keep following this project to see what happens and when the new version is available with more power delivery I'll jump on it.

[RazaGR]

following as I need it to support 135 w Lenovo

[haxx0r07]

I use several of these https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808132927619.html to power my P330's and MS-01's.

Not sure what chip they use internally or if they are available in a more barebones form factor.

[BenjaminDSmithy]

1+ from me also as I have a 12U 10” rack with 1 LattePanda Sigma with plans to buy an additional 3, each of which uses 90W

[brentrockwood]

Not asking for anything. Just noodling with the idea of a MEAN WELL RSP-1000-48 and few 240W PD3.1 power modules. Maybe above my skill level. But maybe not too!

Thanks for the cool design!

[kquinsland01]

I am working on a similar-ish project / was happy to see this project on youtube yesterday :).

I am targeting a more modular/hot-swappable design:

Using these modules:
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808659168317.html which use the SW3538 chip.

It is annoyingly difficult to find standards compliant PD modules on ali express that also expose the i2c pins!

But the good news is that those modules are OK to 100W using standard protocol and you can lock out higher power / non-standard via i2c. You can - of course - also monitor power / temperature and - critical for my application - turn the CC1/2 pins off which is alllmost as good as a high-side FET to actually cut power to the load.

I took a closer look at the modules that @brentrockwood posted and the good news is that centry labs did license them as GPL so it would be relatively straight forward to clone/fork and modify the module (drop the QUIC, dupont headers, screw terminals) and make it easier to slot in.

[therevoman]

I have 3 small nodes I could use this for, but I have 12 minisforum NAB7 that have 120W requirements @ 19v, so this won't quite work for me.

[kquinsland01]

I have 3 small nodes I could use this for, but I have 12 minisforum NAB7 that have 120W requirements @ 19v, so this won't quite work for me.

Have you measured the actual power draw for your workloads? Usually mini PCs come with a power brick that's rated for a fully loaded system + overhead (multiple USB ports in use, PCIe cards, inrush for caps... etc).

The i7 in that guy has a TDP of only 45W and I don't think the WiFi/Ethernet + intel gpu / ssd / ram ... etc need the full remaining 75W (20-ish W at most, likely).

[brentrockwood]

I have 3 small nodes I could use this for, but I have 12 minisforum NAB7 that have 120W requirements @ 19v, so this won't quite work for me.

Have you measured the actual power draw for your workloads? Usually mini PCs come with a power brick that's rated for a fully loaded system + overhead (multiple USB ports in use, PCIe cards, inrush for caps... etc).

The i7 in that guy has a TDP of only 45W and I don't think the WiFi/Ethernet + intel gpu / ssd / ram ... etc need the full remaining 75W (20-ish W at most, likely).

Yeah, but with USB PD, both ends have to agree on the power. It's not like a barrel jack where it's often "good enough".