ShrikeLab PDU V1: rack mounted USB-C power for a cluster of mini PCs

One 300W supply in place of ten power bricks

ShrikeLab PDU V1 is a USB-C power delivery unit for homelabs, aimed at 10 inch and 19 inch racks. Every variant is built around a Meanwell HRP-300-24, and the outputs are either five or ten USB-C ports delivering up to 65W each, in a 1U tall housing with active cooling.

The problem it addresses is physical. Mini and micro labs are a good way to run a homelab, but the power delivery options are usually bulky and hard to manage because each computer needs its own power brick. This project consolidates the power delivery for up to ten 65W micro PCs into one unit that fits in a 10 inch or 19 inch 1U rack.

The design is also specific about how it differs from a normal multi-port USB PD hub. A hub re-negotiates power delivery voltages when a device is turned off or unplugged, and when the load across ports changes drastically. This design does not need to do that. The packaging is designed for rack mounting, with active cooling and simple power switching.

That last sentence is the boundary of the product. There is switching, and it is simple. There is no firmware feature list, no web interface and no per port telemetry, because nothing in the repository describes one.

The 10 inch single variant with five ports

The original enclosure is the 10 inch single variant, and it is the simplest thing to build from sheet metal. The housing is a sheet metal body and lid, with a 3D printed front and rear, and it provides five outputs. Its bill of materials is linked separately from the other variants in the repository.

For that variant there is also an Imperial edition. The CAD folder contains a directory named 10in_Single_Imperial, edited for .048 inch sheet metal, which is 1.2mm, and marked as SendCutSend compatible. In other words, if you would rather have the panels cut by a service than folded and drilled by hand, that edition exists specifically for it.

Two rack formats are covered overall, 19 inch and 10 inch, and the Imperial sheet metal compatibility is called out as being for the 10 inch single variant. The ToDo list still has an item to export all sheet metal STEP files in 1.2mm thickness for Imperial, so if you plan to send a 19 inch or dual variant to a cutting service, that export may not be ready yet.

Three printed enclosures trade hardware for print time

The 10 inch 3D printed unibody and the 10 inch 3D printed modular variant cover the case where you do not want to work with sheet metal at all.

The unibody is described as made to be as easy as possible with minimal additional hardware, and the trade-off is that it is a little harder to print. It needs no inserts at all, since all bolts thread directly into the print material, and there is a small hatch for attaching the button and fan and for connecting the wiring to the PCB. That hatch is the point to look at if you plan to service the unit later, because it is the only access to the interior.

The modular variant is the opposite choice. It is made to be more modular and modification friendly, and it requires more M3 inserts and bolts to assemble. Its CAD folder also includes flipped front and rear STL files with the mounting tabs swapped, so the USB-C ports and the power input face the front of the rack instead of the rear. For a rack where you access the front panel more often than the back, that is the difference between a tidy cable run and a mess of cables behind the unit.

The 10 inch dual variant is the one with ten outputs, and it is built for external power supplies. It is intended for alternative power sources such as battery or solar, or for up-cycling external 300W PSUs, with a ten inch enclosure.

What the repository actually contains

The repository is organised as a hardware project rather than a software one, and the top level has five entries: ASSEMBLY, Images, PCB, LICENSE and the README.

ASSEMBLY holds renders and references for the main and sub assemblies, plus a bill of materials for each variant. CAD holds the CAD files for all variants, the universal files and drawings of components, with a Universal directory for files shared between variants, one directory per variant, and a Blanks directory of STP files for customisation. Universal STL and STP files that are used by multiple variants sit alongside the STP blanks.

Drawings is split in two. Electrical covers harness pinouts and drawings of the electronic components, which is what you need when the PCB and the harness have to agree on every pin. Hardware covers drawings of the hardware along with the sheet metal engineering drawings.

The PCB directory holds the PCB gerber manufacturing files. So the full path from the repository to a working unit is: choose a variant, read its bill of materials, order the board from the gerbers, print the plastic, cut or fold the metal, and follow the drawings for the wiring.

The project also states that kits and PCBs are available to buy, which is a different route than building everything yourself, and the design and build and follow-up testing videos are linked from the README.

A fixed distribution board, not a managed power device

The comparison that matters is with the two alternatives a homelab owner actually has. The first is a conventional rack PDU with AC outlets, which is cheap and well understood but puts one power brick back on every machine, which is the situation the project set out to remove. The second is a multi-port USB-C charging hub, which is compact but re-negotiates voltages as devices come and go and as the load across ports shifts.

Given that, this design wins on cable management and on power behaviour, and loses on everything a managed device offers. There is no per port switching, no power measurement, no remote control and no inventory of what is plugged where. The README describes simple power switching and nothing more.

There is also a capacity constraint that follows from the architecture rather than from the documentation. One HRP-300-24 is the source for the whole unit, so the total draw across all ports is bounded by that supply, and the 65W figure per port is a per port maximum rather than an independent budget for each machine. Ten ports at 65W each is well past what a single 300W supply can deliver, so the operating envelope is narrower than the port list suggests.

For a homelab with, say, a handful of 20W to 45W mini PCs, that is comfortable. For ten full 65W machines, it is not, and the documentation does not spell out the aggregate limit.

CERN-OHL-S-2.0 and a repository with no releases

The licence field on the repository says CERN-OHL-S-2.0, and the LICENSE file at the root holds the text. That is a hardware open licence rather than a software one, which means the terms attach to the design files rather than to source code: modifications and derivatives of the design carry conditions about sharing the modified design and respecting the licence.

The practical reading for a builder is that you can build this unit, sell what you build, and modify the design, but a modified design has its own obligations under the licence. This is a description of the licence type and not legal advice, and anyone planning to sell a commercial product built from these files should read the LICENSE file and take their own advice on it.

On maintenance, the last push was on 2026-10-14 and the repository has no GitHub releases, so there is no tagged version to record what you built from. The primary language field is empty, which is consistent with a mechanical project whose deliverables are CAD files, drawings and gerbers rather than text source.

The project is also honest about its scope. The Issues section says there is a lot of ground to cover and asks for problems to be raised through the GitHub issue system, and asks that questions about assembly be raised only after reading the README content, which is what you would expect from a design that still has open items in its ToDo list.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt ShrikeLab PDU V1 when you are running several 65W micro computers in one rack and want to replace a pile of power bricks with a single 1U unit whose behaviour does not change when a machine is unplugged, and when you are willing to build or source the kit. Do not adopt it if you need per port switching, metering or remote control, because the design is a fixed distribution board with simple power switching and no management layer. Before you start, decide between the 5 port single variant and the 10 port dual variant, check that your printer can handle the parts, since all of them fit on a 220x220mm bed, and read the CAD folder for the variant you chose, because the Imperial sheet metal files are a separate edition and the STEP exports for 1.2mm sheet are still listed as pending work.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. License: CERN-OHL-S-2.0
3. Project website
4. README
5. Shrike-Lab/HomeLab-PDU-V1 on GitHub