Port settings
Each port has its own settings. You can change them in the web interface’s Settings, in Home Assistant, over MQTT or with the HTTP API. Changes apply at once, even to a device that is already plugged in.
Give each port a name, such as pi-cluster-1 or Desk phone, up to 23
characters. The name shows in the web interface and in Home Assistant, where
the entities are renamed to match: Port 3 power becomes Desk phone
power. Renaming doesn’t change any entity IDs, so your automations keep
working.
Leave the name blank to go back to Port 1, Port 2 and so on.
On or off at power-up
Section titled “On or off at power-up”Choose what each port does when Power Manifold is switched on, for example after a power cut:
- on (the default): the port powers up.
- off: the port stays off until you switch it on.
- last: the port comes back the way you last left it.
When the chassis powers up, the ports come on one at a time, a quarter of a second apart, in priority order. This stops six devices from starting all at once.
Voltage cap
Section titled “Voltage cap”The voltage cap is the highest voltage a port offers. Choose 5, 9, 12, 15 or 20 V. The default is 20 V, which offers everything.
Use a lower cap to protect a device that shouldn’t get a high voltage. For example:
- 5 V for a device with a USB-C trigger board or adapter that you don’t fully trust.
- 9 V to limit the charging power of a phone.
Current limit
Section titled “Current limit”The current limit is the most current a port offers at any voltage, from 500 to 5000 mA. Power scales with the voltage the device picks: a 3000 mA limit means 15 W at 5 V and 60 W at 20 V.
The limit only sets what the port offers. A device that requests more receives the limited amount and is not switched off.
Try a cap, a limit and a cable to see what a port offers:
Switching off when charged
Section titled “Switching off when charged”The controller notices when a device has finished charging. That happens when the device draws less than 500 mW for 10 minutes. The port light turns white, as if nothing were plugged in, and the port shows charged. If the device starts drawing again for that long, it counts as charging again. You can change both numbers in Settings, or set the power to 0 to turn detection off.
Two per-port options build on this:
- Switch off once charged turns the port off as soon as the device is charged. Use it to stop phones and tablets from staying at 100 % overnight.
- Sleep timer turns the port off a set number of minutes after you plug a device in, whether it has finished charging or not, up to 24 hours.
The phone charges, then draws next to nothing. Ten minutes under 0.5 W later the port shows charged and its light turns white. The port stays on, so the phone is kept topped up.
The same until the phone counts as charged. At that moment the port switches off, and it stays off until you switch it on again.
The timer counts from when the phone is plugged in. Two hours later the port switches off, whether the phone has finished charging or not.
When either one switches a port off, it stays off until you switch it on again. A port set to last at power-up remembers that it was off.
Priority
Section titled “Priority”Each port also has a priority, which decides which ports are turned down first when devices ask for more power than the supply can give. See Sharing power between ports.