Linear Power Regulators
Preface
This page shows some simple power supplys based on linear voltage regulators. Those power supplies are cheap and easy to handle. They do not require complex peripheral circuitry.
This page is under construction and will become much more detailed.
Typical Circuit
The picture below shows a typical circuit making use of the well known LM78xx series linear voltage regulator. The diode protects the LM78xx from a wrong polarization. The capacitors are needed to eleminate peaks and noise.
Figure 1: LM78xx
Multiple Voltages
For my first robot (XR1) I used a circuit similar to the schema below. There was a 80286 AT motherboard integrated. PC power supplies provide +5, +12, -5 and -12 Volts. It depends on the particular hardware whether all voltages are needed or not. +12 and -12 Volts are used for typical serial interfaces. One might use a special interface cardridge with a MAX232 which eleminates the need for +/-12 Volts. Some VGA cartridges need the -5 voltage. I found out that my 80286 board and the cartridges used only required +5 and +12 Volts.
A big disatvantage of the circuit below is that a PC consumes current at several rates. My board consumed 3A@+5V but only .5A@+12A. As a result the accumulators are getting discharged incomparably.
Figure 2: +/-5V, +/-12V
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this page was updated: 16.09.02 12:38:24
holger@zahnleiter.org
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