iCharge v.2

iCharge v.2 — Modular Charging Station Based on SW3518 When I created the first version of the case for modular assembly using SW3518 modules, I thought five modules would be enough. Each of them has two ports — USB Type-A and USB Type-C. Ten ports should have been sufficient for all tasks. But practice showed otherwise: there are never enough ports. I constantly had to rearrange, unplug, or figure out where to plug in another cable. So, I decided to expand the project and build a more capacious unit. That’s how the second version — iCharge V2 — was born. Refined Layout In the new case, I changed the orientation of the modules. Previously, USB Type-C was on top and Type-A below. Now it’s the opposite. In the first version, it seemed more logical to have USB-C on top. But real-world use proved that it’s more convenient to have Type-A above and Type-C below. A small detail, but it’s nuances like this that make a device truly practical. Light Guides: From Fishing Line to Transparent PLA In the first version, I made the light guides out of fishing line: I drilled a through hole from the LED to the outside, inserted a piece of line, and then carefully trimmed it flush after assembly. It worked, but it didn’t look great. Now it’s different: I print the light guides directly from transparent PLA. The case has a blind mounting hole above the printed light guide — no extra steps required.   Important: for a clean result, use a 0.2 mm nozzle. Both the fonts and the light guides require high precision. You can try with a 0.4 mm nozzle, but I couldn’t achieve decent quality that way. Modules and Power The block now includes more 100-watt modules. Yes, if you add up the rated power of all the ports, the number significantly exceeds the power of the supply I’m using. But that’s just theoretical math. In practice, it never happens that all ports run at maximum simultaneously. At most, I draw about 100 W for a soldering station — and even then, not with this unit, but with another