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I am building a raspberry pi cluster. I am looking for a multi-head micro-usb power cable to power them.

Does such a beast exist? Or can I make one myself?

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    Technically USB cables will only support about 3A full draw anything more could cause it to melt. So if you make your own you have to use a main cable that will handle allot of power and then connect mini USB of that cable. It depends how many Pi's, more than 3 or 4 that is the way to go. But you could also power up via GPIO and use a regulated power supply like a computer PSU 5Volt, MUCH MUCH MUUUUCH Better! – Piotr Kula Jul 24 '14 at 17:32
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You can definitely make you own. You can either cut up and existing micro usb cable, and solder the red and black (not always though) to a central (thicker) cable.

You can also buy the plugs themselves

Some people have powered the Pi though the GPIO header. The downside to this is that you bypass the polyfuse and the Transient voltage suppressor diode. So you will lose some protection.

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Yes, such cables do exist and are often called "multi charging cables":

enter image description here

Of course you can make one yourself, especially if you want to minimize the excess length (e.g. if your RPi boards are stacked on top of each other).

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your best bet is to use a cople surge protectors like these http://www.govtechdepot.com/555j-6out-2-5ft-cord-reg-plg-be106000-2-5/?ref=lexity&_vs=google&_vm=productsearch&gclid=CjwKEAjwgMieBRCB3bqB94e9lD4SJABW3sTNsvtAD_2prn4Rri_SPoeJ4iQ0cz2uc-yxrVzAnvjTDBoCcCbw_wcB cheap powersupplys http://www.everbuying.com/product176948.html?currency=USD&gclid=CjwKEAjwgMieBRCB3bqB94e9lD4SJABW3sTN3HadLlzJZUbtrzV7rA99Kdi_1mw8WbSfE9f0lsUNuhoCLQDw_wcB and short micro usb cables

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  • That's basically the setup I have and I hate it. – John Smith Jul 25 '14 at 18:12
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    Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. Your first link is also broken. In addition the long links are hard to read. The editor tools will allow you to insert the link and link to a descriptive link text. – Steve Robillard Apr 22 '15 at 22:32
  • Neither of these links work. – BillP3rd Oct 21 '16 at 9:20

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