[MinnowBoard] USB power adapter

[Ken Tait]

These boards have a pretty poor power supply to keep them 'cheap'. That 
is why they require 5V in instead of 12V. All of the larger CPU's have a 
large instantaneous current draw when they turn on. This gets worse if 
you add disk drives or USB peripherals. The plug in the wall power 
supplies are poorly designed, they in fact do NOT handle this kind of 
surge well. If you get one to work, it is a random event. what you 
really need is a 5V at 5A switching supply that has a fast rise time to 
get this to reliably work.

If you place an on/off switch in the + power supply lead and plug the 
'plug in the wall' supply in FIRST before turning it on, you may get 
better results.
This allows the supply to come up to voltage before turning on the Max.

As for the barrel jacks, you can get them from Digi-Key or Mouser, lots 
of the surplus houses like All-Electronics also have them from time to time.

Hope this helps
Ken