Hosted by David Calkins and Patrick Norton.
Systm is the Do It Yourself show designed for the common geek who wants to quickly and easily learn how to dive into the latest and hottest tech projects. We will help you avoid pitfalls and get your project up and running fast. Read More
Today we turn a 7805 Voltage Regulator and 4 AA batteries into a very simple Power Supply to charge anything that runs off USB. Breadboarding circuits are fun!
But we were looking for an excuse to play with a basic +5V 7805 Voltage Regulator we saw for $1.59 at our local Radio Shack
So we grabbed our trusty breadboard, a 4 AA battery holder, some wire, and liberated a femail USB plug from a USB extender cable.
The nice thing about recycling USB cables for a power supply: just look for the black (-) and red (+) wires when you split the cable open.
While we're at it, we briefly talk about Linear Voltage Regultors (like the 7805) which act like a variable resistors, tend to heat up, and can only reduce voltage vs. Stepping Voltage Regulators, which turn off and on to regulate voltage, are super efficient, generate less heat, and can raise or lower voltage.
Did I say we? David's off building the studio this week, and Brendan's locked in a server closet.
Got a project idea or a question? Email us: systm@revision3.com
