+5V regulated power supply

Objectives:
1. To gain insight into the principle and use of IC based voltage regulation
2. To learn how to solder a given circuit

Requirements:
Components:
1. 7805 IC regulator
2. Resistors
3. Capacitors .1 uF

Equipments:
1. Soldering rod
2. Solder lead
3. PCB plates (Matrix board)
4. Wires
5. dc power supply
6. Banana Sockets

Circuit diagram:

Fig: 7805 fixed +5V regulator IC

C1=.33μF required if IC is situated at considerable distance from power supply capacitor

C2=.1μF helps to increase stability and improve transient response
C1 and C2 are both optional and may be excluded for most common applications
Working principle:

The 7805 is a part of the popular 78xx series of Integrated Circuit (IC) based
constant positive voltage regulators, supplied by many different manufacturers. The ‘xx’
in the IC number of the 78xx series of voltage regulators implies the voltage at which the
IC regulates. Hence the 7805 regulates its output voltage at +5V. Some of its key features
are:

• up to 1A supply to load
• thermal overload protection (protection from damage due to overheating)
• short circuit protection

Although the 78xx series of regulators is for providing constant voltage output,
external components may be used along with the IC to obtain a variety of different
voltage levels. Unlike the regulators constructed by using discrete components, the use of
IC regulators is rather simple. After the required connections are made, the user only has
to supply input to the IC and it provides the user with the required regulated output. It
should be noted that any IC cannot provide its output unless it is given its proper power
supply. Hence to provide the regulated output, the input voltage of the 7805 (and any
other IC of the 78xx series) must be at least 2V above the regulated output that it can
provide, i.e., for the 7805 to function properly, its input must be at least 7V (5+2). Above
this input, the IC provides a regulated constant 5V output.

Although the amount of current IC can supply is limited to 1A (consult datasheet for
more details), this value can be increased if proper cooling can be provided for the IC.
Hence if proper heat sink is used, the amount of current that can be supplied by the IC
can be increased.

Observation:

Input Output
0
1
3
5
6
7
8
9
10

Discussions:
 ±15V regulated power supply

Objectives:
1. To understand how to generate ± supply
2. To learn to use ± 15V regulator IC’s to produce regulated bipolar supply

Requirements:
Components:
1. 7815 IC regulator
2. 7915 IC regulator
3. Capacitors 1000µF, 0.33 µF, 2.2 µF, 0.1 µF, 1 µF
4. Transformer 15-0-15

Equipments:
1. Bread board
2. Wires

Circuit diagram:

Fig: Circuit to produce bipolar unregulated supply

Fig: Circuit to produce ± 15V regulated power supply

Working principle:

After understanding the working principle and circuit of the 7805 regulator, the
working of the bipolar regulators will not be so difficult to understand. The 7815 is also a
part of the popular 78xx series of Integrated Circuit (IC) based constant positive voltage
regulators. These IC’s are also supplied by many different manufacturers. Similarly the
7915 is a part of the 79xx series of IC regulators and is the negative supply counterpart of
the 7815. The key features of most 78xx and 79xx series of regulators provided by any
given manufacturer are similar. However the main difference between 7815 and 7915 is
that the 7915 is the negative output counterpart of the 7815. While 7815 takes positive
unregulated power supply to give +15V output, the 7915 takes negative unregulated
power supply to give -15V. Also, as is the case of most 78xx and 79xx series of IC’s,
they need an input voltage of at least 2V above the regulated output that they are to
provide, i.e., the 7815 needs at least +17V or above to provide successful regulation and
the 7915 needs at least -17 V or below to provide successful regulation. Other electrical
characteristics are almost similar to the 7805.

To provide the bipolar unregulated input to the IC’s, a 15-0-15 center tapped
transformer is used. The stepped down voltage from the transformer is rectified using
bridge rectifier constructed from 1N4007 rectifier diodes. If the tapped point of the
transformer is used as the reference ground for the circuit, the point where the cathodes of
the two diodes of the bridge meet provides the positive unregulated supply, where as the
point where the anodes of the two diodes of the bridge rectifier meet provides the
negative unregulated power supply.
Observations:

For positive supply,

Vi = ___________ Vo = ___________

For negative supply,

Vi = ___________ Vo = ___________

Discussions:
 Regulated Variable Power Supply

Objectives:
To learn how to use IC regulator generate variable regulated power supply

Requirements:
Components:
3. LM317 IC regulator
4. Resistors 220Ω
5. Potentiometers 1K, 5K
6. Capacitors .1µF, 1 µF, 1000 µF
7. 15-0-15 transformer

Equipments:
8. Soldering rod
9. Solder lead
10. PCB plates (Matrix board)
11. Wires
12. dc power supply

Circuit diagram:

Fig: Regulated variable power supply

The capacitor C0 is needed only if the regulator is located at a considerable distance from
the power supply filter capacitor. C1 helps to improve the transient response. Both the
capacitors Ci and Co are optional and the circuit should work properly without them for
most applications.

Working principle:

The LM317 is an old popular Integrated Circuit (IC) based variable voltage
regulator. The most basic circuit configuration utilizes a voltage divider network using a
variable resistor to obtain a feedback of the output which is used by the internal IC
circuitry for regulation, drawing a negligible amount of current from the feedback
network. The IC is designed to provide more than 1.5A output current with a proper heat
sink system and an output voltage adjustable over a range of 1.25V to 37V. Some of its
key features are internal thermal overload (overheating) protection and internal short
circuit current limiting.

The regulator output voltage is a function of the resistors used in the feedback
network. For the given basic circuit, the output voltage of the regulator is given by the
expression
Vo = 1.25 * (1 + R2 / R1)
It can be seen that for the variable resistor R2 = 0V, the output voltage is at 1.25V. Hence
the minimum regulated value that the IC can supply is 1.25V. If using a transformer of
15V, it provides an unregulated power supply of 18V as input to the IC. Typical values
for the voltage divider are R1 = 220Ω and R2 = 4.7KΩ

However, for practical purposes, using these values makes the circuit quite sensitive to
the change in resistance of the potentiometer which makes it very difficult to adjust the
output of the IC. Hence it will be easier if another potentiometer of about 500Ω or 1K is
connected in series to R2, which acts as a fine adjustment knob.

Observations:

R2 Output voltage
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
After observing the table data above, adjust R2 and R3 to obtain 13.2V output.

Discussions: