I am experimenting with a power supply using a 230 – 6v AC transformer feeding a bridge rectifier. The raw output of the transformer is 7.3v dc and the output of the bridge is 7.4v dc.
However, on connecting a smoothing capacitor (470μ electrolytic) across the bridge output, the output voltage rises to 10.6 v dc. What is going on here?
Should I add a resistor to drop the 10v to the required 6v?

 

This may help you out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectifier se the 2.1.2 Full-wave rectification. Another thing you may not know. Is that voltmeters measure RMS voltage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_mean_square
In applications like yours. It is most common to use a voltage regulator. Do you know how much current your setup will draw