Rick Miller wrote:

> You could do it with a resistive voltage divider, diode, and capacitor
> to form a half-wave rectifier which would feed a voltage regulator.  The
> single power resistor you would need (it'd have to be able to handle at
> least 2 or 3 Watts) may be expensive, but it would eliminate the need
> for a transformer.

You might also consider a capacitive voltage divider instead of resistive.
This would not dissipate the 2 or 3 Watts (energy is stored, not dissipated
in the capacitors).

Brent Miller