dc 12 to 5v pre made circuit

Thread Starter

aac9876

Joined Dec 9, 2006
124
i want to run a couple of 5v outputs from a 12v car battery.
aside from buying a whole unit at walmart..
is their a simple premade little unit ,7805 prob. that is avail.
to wire to the batt. just a simple harness thats cheap.
 

thingmaker3

Joined May 16, 2005
5,083
Do you want to make this yourself, or are you looking for a commercial product? Also, will this run from an isolated car battery (say, in a hunter's cabin, or a boat, or the back yard) or will it plug into the dashboard?
 

SgtWookie

Joined Jul 17, 2007
22,230
i want to run a couple of 5v outputs from a 12v car battery.
aside from buying a whole unit at walmart..
is their a simple premade little unit ,7805 prob. that is avail.
to wire to the batt. just a simple harness thats cheap.
What are your current requirements (how much current does each accessory use), and how long does the cord need to be?

Better plan on having a fuse in the line, very close to the battery. Otherwise, you may be in for a very unpleasant melt-down.

An LM7805 can supply up to 1.5A (properly heat-sinked, of course) - but you should add bypass caps on the inputs and outputs, as well as diodes to protect the chip during shutdown from the charges stored in the bypass caps. The datasheets will show you all of that. If the input and output wires are REALLY short, you might be able to get away without the bypass caps and diodes. But don't whine to me if you fry your stuff by trying to be too cheap about it.

You'll get better regulation out of the variable regulators (like LM337, LM338), but that adds costs. Not much - but you're sounding like you're on a real budget.

Buy quality components from trusted manufacturers.

Unless, of course, you don't mind letting the smoke out of the stuff you're trying to power. :eek: They tend to not work after that. :p

If you can't afford to power your accessories with the stuff right now, might I suggest that you can't afford to replace it if it gets fried. Wait a bit until you can, and do it right the first time.

But really, it shouldn't cost nearly as much to build a proper supply at home, as it would to buy a commercial one that more likely than not is made in China, and will break inside of three months. :p You'll need some basic tools though.
 

Thread Starter

aac9876

Joined Dec 9, 2006
124
decided to get a small pure sine inverter,a newer model
by morningstar, 300 watt. it should be good for the small
loads off a car battery. i have had mixed luck with square wave stuff that is half the price. :rolleyes:
 
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