[Noisebridge-discuss] N00b question - changing power supply voltage

[jim]

   a friend of mine had a game that had a short 
somewhere in it. 
   he hooked up an LM338 (setting the spec'd 
voltage) and powered up the game. the LM338 
turned kind of orange, but it held the voltage 
and my pal was able to find the short. 
   there are other good uses of linear 
regulators, like if you really don't want any 
hum (DC ripple) in your audio circuit.... 



On Tue, 2010-07-06 at 20:09 -0700, Jonathan Foote wrote:
> Nooooo! Avoid linear regulators for anything that needs significant
> power. They are less efficient than you think, and what you gain in
> cheapness you will lose in heatsink grease, hassle, and possibly
> scorched fingers. As mentioned above:
> 
> Option 1: get a right-sized switcher. Cheap and available, check out mpja.com
> 
> Option 2: get a dc-dc converter. TI makes some decent ones and will
> send you FREE SAMPLES
> 
> Option 3: you don't need regulated DC for this application: find a
> surplus unregulated supply (cheap if a boat anchor) or
> like Corey sez, roll your own with a xformer, bridge rectifier, and filter cap.
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>