Are your USB ports boring? Need RGB? This $6 USB 2.0 Type-A port from Tensility International Corporation Listed on Digi-Key It is intended to illuminate dark and boring USB ports.hat tips to Arturo 182 to bring this to our attention.
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Rated up to 30V at 3A (90W over USB A?), this RGB USB port uses RGB LEDs with a common anode connected to the power pins. Colors can then be mixed by controlling the state of the cathode pin for each color. Controlling these pins is probably the job of a microcontroller such as the RP2040 from the Raspberry Pi Pico on a custom PCB.in the data sheet, you can see that there are two rows of pins. The one closest to the front of the USB port acts as a standard USB 2. The four pins on the back are for LEDs in blue, green, voltage, and red configurations. An extra LED pin means you can’t drop this part onto an existing board. Instead, it must be attached to a custom board wired to send the signal to an RGB LED. It also looks like a typical USB A port and can be soldered to a PCB with a thickness of 1.6mm or less.
As already mentioned, this port is capable of delivering up to 90W of power, so there is an interesting use case for setting RGB to indicate a set voltage. A buck converter or voltage regulator can be used to set the appropriate voltage and trigger the microcontroller to light up and display a color. Red is 30V, green is 12V, and blue is 5V. A simple flick of a switch sets the voltage and triggers a color change. Alternatively, PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) can be used to mix specific colors between voltages. This isn’t as obvious as using his NeoPixel for APA102 RGB LEDs, but it gets the job done.
| Forward voltage at 20mA | R. | 1.8-2.4V |
| row 1 – cell 0 | G. | 2.7-3.5V |
| row 2 – cell 0 | B. | 2.7-3.5V |
| Luminous intensity at 20mA | R. | 400-800mcd |
| row 4 – cell 0 | G. | 600-1000mcd |
| row 5 – cell 0 | B. | 200-500mcd |
This through-hole part is available in ‘cut tape’ and ‘reel’. The former can be purchased in small quantities for short term/individual projects. The latter is preferred by manufacturers who load the reels ready for pick-and-place machines to place the components on a series of boards.
If you’re designing your own product, or have the skills to retrofit a port to an existing build (not recommended), asking $6 for a little flair isn’t a big deal. is not.
