You should be able to find a wall wart that runs at 9
VDC.

BTW, I have found that with a heat sink, the max power
is just about 3W.

If its just a temporary thing, blow air over the heat
sink.  Moving air dramtically improves the thermal
conductivity.

Peter H Anderson
http://www.phanderson.com

--- Michael Olson <olson@CS.ODU.EDU> wrote:
> I've been using a Radio Shack 13.8VDC/3A supply
> feeding a
> LM317 w/ Heat Sink for my breadboarding setup so
> far. But
> now I'm playing with some VFDs and expect to be
> pulling
> around 500mA at 5VDC stedily, with an inrush peak
> near 900ma.
>
> I don't think my current configuration is going to
> be good
> for a steady 4.4W even if I improve the heatsink.
> I'm debating
> between the quick fixes and something I don't see
> outgrowing
> any time soon.
>
> Options I'm considering now are
>
> 1 - Moving over to a 5V switching setup, perhaps the
> PT5101A.
>
>
(http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/pt5101.html)
>
> 2 - Find a 5V switching wall wart, or a 7V
> unregulated to feed
>     a 7805.
>
> 3 - Raiding e-Bay for a new bench power supply.
>     (Any shopping tips?)
>
> 4 - The Fun solution:
>     Converting an Antec QuietPower. It seems to me
> that by
>     just installing the power supply into a project
> box and
>     hooking up via an ATX 20 pin connector that you
> could
>     preserve the warrenty and certifications. I was
> thinking
>     it might be a fun project to put a front panel
> Voltage
>     and Current meter for each output and perhaps a
> setable
>     emergency shutoff based on the current being
> drawn. Any
>     reason I couldn't use a PICs A/D inputs
> referencing a
>     precision voltage reference hooked up across the
> output
>     for the voltage and across a very low value
> resistor for
>     the current? While this has a great deal of
> appeal it's a
>     bit more of a down the road solution as I need a
> better
>     power supply now.
>
> Are there better options I'm missing or anything
> wrong with
> the ideas I have so far?
>
> Thanks,
>   Michael Olson
>
> --
> http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived
> three different
> ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for
details.





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