5 Voltage divider circuits that go beyond dividing

Wed, 23 Aug 2017 13:19:15 +0000

Here are some ideas of what you can do with the humble voltage divider. This elementary circuit has a few inventive uses. To be upfront, one of these uses is NOT as a voltage regulator. If you need a voltage regulated, get a voltage regulator! At some point or another, I’ve built all five of these voltage divider circuits. For me, the voltage level shifter is the most common.

Voltage Regulator Tutorial and Basics

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:41:30 +0000

Regulator Types

Fundamentally there are two types of voltage regulators: linear and switching. The names come from how they operate and how they achieve voltage regulation. Linear regulators tend to be a little cheaper to implement, but they aren’t as efficient as their more complex switching variants.

There are also some “cheap and dirty” methods that some designs use. Below is a brief description and example of each.

Linear

A simple way to think of a linear regulator is to think of it as an active series resistor. It will vary its effective resistance so that the output voltage remains the same. The upside to such a design is that it is cheap, simple to implement, and provides a relatively clean output. The downside is that the regulator dissipates a relatively large amount of power.

voltage dividers on Bald Engineer

5 Voltage divider circuits that go beyond dividing

Voltage Regulator Tutorial and Basics

Regulator Types

Linear