At $15, that’s a great price for novices who don’t have the knowledge to design/build something like this from scratch. Another well designed and useful kit from LadyAda.

Posted at 12:44 pm on Jul 16th, 2009 by Mike

This is awesome!

Posted at 2:27 pm on Jul 16th, 2009 by Life2Death

This is not a switching supply design so if you intend to use it for low voltages like 3 or 5vdc , don’t use high input voltage sources like 18-20vdc as it will have to dissipate the difference as heat. Try to pick power sources that are as close to the output voltage that you intend to use.

Posted at 2:31 pm on Jul 16th, 2009 by cgmark

Well the regulator has only 400mV drop but the protection diode also has a drop of around 500mV at 1.25 amp so using a Li-ion battery won’t work for large currents. It will work without problem for low currents. BTW the MIC2941 has a -20 volt reverse voltage protection built-in ;)

The 3.3V/5V/Adjustable switch is the best feature IMHO. I think it’s maybe a tad expensive ;P

Posted at 2:43 pm on Jul 16th, 2009 by vic

This is really only marginally useful. Realistically, 85% of the time you will be using 5V. The rest of the time you will be using 1.8V or 3.3V which you probably already have a million regulators for. The only other commonly used voltage is 12V, which you can also use a regulator for.

A much better solution, IMO, one that doesn’t limit your current or rely on any extra circuitry on your board, is to use an old ATX PSU. You get short circuit prevention, a huge current supply, and a whole lot of different voltages (including negative voltages) to work with.

Posted at 4:00 pm on Jul 16th, 2009 by thethirdmoose

The ATX power supply is a great idea, and one day I am intending to build a dedicated bench supply from one of those. However, I don’t think it’s a good idea to rely on their internal short circuit protection feature for safety. Modern ATX power supplies are designed to deliver huge amount of current. Therefore, the current threshold that triggers the protection is most likely high; probably high enough to incinerate something flimsy like a prototyping or a bread board into nothingness. Anyone using an ATX supply should attach a current limiter to the output.

Posted at 9:22 pm on Jul 16th, 2009 by Tachikoma

it’s perfect for a solar batter charger considering you have a controller.

I seen a guy do one with a regulator, diode and a national semiconductor LDO to make a 12V regulator that handled hi current. He used it on a portable 12V 48W solar power setup.

Posted at 3:07 am on Jul 17th, 2009 by TJHooker

this is not hacking

Posted at 9:36 am on Jul 18th, 2009 by lekernel

Êà÷àåì áåñïëàòíî ìîé íîâûé ðåìèêñ!

http://d-lar.pdj.ru/remixes/868757/Bucovina_Machalagease_DJ_D_Lar_Remix.html

Posted at 1:17 pm on Jul 18th, 2009 by dj_super_promo_remix

Ladyada is using a MIC2941 which as she says in a very low drop out linear regulator. The MIC2941 comes in a 3V and 5V fixed configuration and a Adjustable configuration as well. Sells for about $2.31 on digikey, cheaper if you buy in bulk. You can find the datasheet online. It will give you several recommended circuit designs, one of them ladyada is using, that you can setup your self in minutes on a breadboard.

Posted at 11:06 am on Jul 20th, 2009 by kurf