Article
In-Vehicle Voltage Regulator
In vehicles it is often required to have a powerful yet stabilised voltage that’s not affected in any way by fluctuations of the battery voltage. The circuit shown here does the job using discrete and inexpensive parts only. While its low cost is a definite advantage over just about any kind of regulator IC, on the downside we have a minimum voltage drop of 2 volts — in fact the output voltage can be set to any value between 1.8 V and about 10 V. Continuous loads up to 100 watts can be handled, while peak values of 140 W should not present problems.
Materials
Gerber file
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PCB
Component list
Resistors:
R1,R2 = 0?1, 5W
R3 = 1k?
R4 = 100k?
P1 = 10k? linear potentiometer
Capacitors:
C1,C2,C3 = 100nF
Semiconductors:
IC1 = 741CN
T1 = BD241B
T2,T3 = 2N3055 (TO-3 case)
Miscellaneous:
K1,K2 = 2-way PCB terminal block, lead pitch 5mm
S1 = switch, heavy-duty, 1 change-over contact (see text)
R1,R2 = 0?1, 5W
R3 = 1k?
R4 = 100k?
P1 = 10k? linear potentiometer
Capacitors:
C1,C2,C3 = 100nF
Semiconductors:
IC1 = 741CN
T1 = BD241B
T2,T3 = 2N3055 (TO-3 case)
Miscellaneous:
K1,K2 = 2-way PCB terminal block, lead pitch 5mm
S1 = switch, heavy-duty, 1 change-over contact (see text)
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