Content:
We covered the Dell Wyse 3040 in a few articles now, and have a certain fondness for the little machines. We have a mix of both 8GB and 16GB models, as well as having a couple of 12V versions to go with the more common 5V versions.
We power all of our 3040s using USB type C to barrel jack converters, to reduce the number of power supplies we need to plug in. They’re available in a range of voltages, including both the 5V and 12V we purchased for our 3040s.
We’ve recently been working on creating custom LED setups powered through USB type C, and purchased a USB type C power monitor for testing convenience. Testing with the same type of Anker power supply we use for our 3040s, we realised that it doesn’t support 12V output.
We tested one of our 3040s with the 12V barrel converter, and sure enough, it’s not actually receiving 12V, and never has. It’s worth mentioning here that as per the USB power delivery specifications, if a requested voltage isn’t supported by the charger, it will fall back to the next-highest voltage it can provide. In this case, the 3040 was actually getting 9V.
This made us curious, and we decided to test it out with one of the 5V converters. It’s been running for over two months now with no noticeable issues.
In our review and teardown of the 3040, we hypothesised that Dell switched to 12V for the later boards to standardise their power hardware. The lack of noticeable differences to the boards, and the fact the 12V version seems to run perfectly well of 5V, lends extra weight to that theory.

Dell Wyse 3040 Overview
Check out our overview and teardown of the Dell Wyse 3040.
Using 5V for power opens the door to using these 12V models with type A to type C charging cables, PC USB ports, and other ‘dumb’ chargers that are not capable of outputting 12V.