jumper2high
Full Member level 3
regulator sensitivity
Hello,
I was building a circuit that was powered from a 12V battery, and included a 5V micro controller. Naturally, a cheap 7805 regulator was used to put the voltage at a reasonable level. Once, by accident, I reversed the polarity on the battery and the voltage regulator was toast. Luckily, nothing else in the circuit got damaged. Lesson learned, a diode used to make reverse current flow impossible.
Then, by ignorance (not being familiar with the circuit 'inside a box') I effectively connected two LED arrays in series instead of parallel. This also seemed to fry the voltage regulator.
Now, I'm curious - are these things really that sensitive? I haven't been using them in a very long time, and I forgot the details - but I think I really used and abused them before - short circuits, overloads, overvoltages .... don't recall ever 'killing' one of 'em.
Also, any ideas on protecting them (I'm running out of regulators ) would be very welcome.
Hello,
I was building a circuit that was powered from a 12V battery, and included a 5V micro controller. Naturally, a cheap 7805 regulator was used to put the voltage at a reasonable level. Once, by accident, I reversed the polarity on the battery and the voltage regulator was toast. Luckily, nothing else in the circuit got damaged. Lesson learned, a diode used to make reverse current flow impossible.
Then, by ignorance (not being familiar with the circuit 'inside a box') I effectively connected two LED arrays in series instead of parallel. This also seemed to fry the voltage regulator.
Now, I'm curious - are these things really that sensitive? I haven't been using them in a very long time, and I forgot the details - but I think I really used and abused them before - short circuits, overloads, overvoltages .... don't recall ever 'killing' one of 'em.
Also, any ideas on protecting them (I'm running out of regulators ) would be very welcome.