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BrianG · 11.20.2008, 04:42 PM

Yeah, hopefully that will work, but a linear reg at the output is just a little extra insurance. Depending on the cost of the circuit it is powering, it might be worth it. In corey's case, 7.4v is not a whole lot extra voltage, so even a linear reg by itself might work fine. Linear regulators have built-in thermal and overcurrent protection. It is really hard to blow one unless you are really really trying - and the only way I know of is to overvolt the input. Even then, the worst that would happen is the output would be 0v.

OTOH, using a pass-transistor to boost the current output of a linear reg can cause problems during a failure since they do not contain protection circuits...

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BrianG RC-Monster Admin Offline Posts: 14,609 Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Des Moines, IA	11.20.2008, 04:42 PM Yeah, hopefully that will work, but a linear reg at the output is just a little extra insurance. Depending on the cost of the circuit it is powering, it might be worth it. In corey's case, 7.4v is not a whole lot extra voltage, so even a linear reg by itself might work fine. Linear regulators have built-in thermal and overcurrent protection. It is really hard to blow one unless you are really really trying - and the only way I know of is to overvolt the input. Even then, the worst that would happen is the output would be 0v. OTOH, using a pass-transistor to boost the current output of a linear reg can cause problems during a failure since they do not contain protection circuits...