Well, after various ideas were thrown around, the prototype board sent=20 out used a 3 Amp 12V LDO ! In the end the client changed (relaxed) some of the parameters and a=20 simple linear reg made the most sense. Thank you to everyone who posted on this. It still gave me ideas for=20 next time. David... On 17/01/2013 2:18 PM, David Duffy (AVD) wrote: > I have the need to regulate the voltage going out to some LED strips. > These strips are simple 12V DC types that have 3 LEDs and a resistor per > section, repeating throughout the strip. > > The voltage available is nominally 12V, but can vary between 12V and > 14V. The ability to handle up to 18V input is also desired by the > client. The current draw of the LED load is approx 3 Amps. > > I was thinking of a simple 12V LDO, but at 2V differential that's 6 > Watts in heat - ouch! Ideally this unit needs to run with minimal heat > dissipation. I also thought about a SEPIC converter, but that would > take too long to design and debug and be overkill for this application. > --=20 ___________________________________________ David Duffy Audio Visual Devices P/L Unit 8, 10 Hook St, Capalaba 4157 Australia Ph: +61 7 38235717 Fax: +61 7 38234717 Our Web Site: www.audiovisualdevices.com.au ___________________________________________ --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .