Reverse Voltage Protection for 5V Rails (India-Made)
⚡ The Problem: Reverse Voltage on 5V Rails
Accidentally connecting power in reverse can instantly damage your 5V electronics—especially microcontrollers, sensors, or modules that lack built-in protection. It’s a common beginner mistake and can destroy hours of prototyping work in seconds.
🔧 The Solution: Add Reverse Voltage Protection
To guard your 5V rail, you can use a Schottky diode or a P-channel MOSFET as a reverse polarity protection circuit. Schottky diodes are simple and cheap but cause a voltage drop (~0.3V), whereas P-MOSFETs offer near-zero drop and higher efficiency—perfect for low-voltage systems.
🧰 Practical Example :
You’re building a 5V-powered IoT sensor module for your farm automation project. You accidentally reverse the input wires from the solar-charged battery. Without protection, the microcontroller could fry. By placing a P-MOSFET in the high-side configuration, the MOSFET blocks the reverse voltage, saving your circuit.
🧮 Sample Calculation :
Let’s say your circuit draws 500mA.
Using a Schottky diode with a forward voltage drop of 0.3V:
Power loss = V × I = 0.3V × 0.5A = 0.15W
That’s small—but with a MOSFET (Rds(on) ≈ 30mΩ):
P = I²R = (0.5)² × 0.03 = 0.0075W → 20x more efficient!
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