At 05:50 AM 3/16/2004, Anthony Toft wrote: > > Not stupid in the least. In fact a lot of novices brag about using low > power > > parts with a battery. But further into the discussion you realize that they > > are using a linear regulator that's sucking down almost half the battery's > > power. > >So which are the better regulators to use? As a non EE I generally stick >to what I know, and I have used the 78l05 in my project, but if that's >not the best (and it strongly sounds like it) I would like to educate >myself in the better devices. BTW - please use a capital "L" in that part number - the lower case "l" looks like a "1". The 78Lxx family is great for most line-powered applications. Its just too darned inexpensive to ignore. That said - I find I now use more LP2950A regulators than any other chip regulator - its initial accuracy is 0.5% and that makes it excellent for the medium accuracy a/d readings that many of my products use. Its also OK for most of the battery operated devices that I design - the regulator uses about 100 uA quiescent but that is small compared to the overall consumption. If a battery-powered product needs to keep the regulator live all the time, I use the TC55 series from Telcom (now Microchip). But - its being discontinued and I have not yet investigated alternatives. My high volume mains-powered products don't use a chip regulator at all. Instead, they use a simple series R shunt zener regulator - less than a third the cost of the least expensive chip regulator and inherently immune to transients. dwayne -- Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax Celebrating 20 years of Engineering Innovation (1984 - 2004) .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .- `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' Do NOT send unsolicited commercial email to this email address. This message neither grants consent to receive unsolicited commercial email nor is intended to solicit commercial email. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu