Power Regulators...

[Donald Whisnant]

Whoever it was that mentioned the Maxim MAX724 switching regulator,
THANKS! ... I just finished designing and building my speedometer
that I've been working on for my '85 Grand Prix that I put the '94
4.3L V6 CMFI engine in (with a 4L60E tranny) ...  The speedometer
was needed because the electronic pickup doesn't work too well for
an older mechanical cable style speedometer :) ....  I was 
originally thinking about using the conventional 7805, but did a
quick calculation: if ALL segments on the display (128 segments
and dps total!) at full power, as much as 2.5 amps could be drawn.
This exceeded the limit of the 7805, but I didn't have much board
space to spare... So I checked out the MAX724 that someone on this
list recommended, and it works great!! -- Now I can run up to 5 Amps
and not worry about it!  (how's that for a safety margin) ...  First
time I've put a switching regulator onto one of my projects -- and
I was well impressed with it...

Also, for those of you looking for good 7-seg display drivers,
check out the MAX7219 -- really neat chip...

Donald Whisnant
dewhisna at ix.netcom.com