Society of Robots - Robot Forum
Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: Private Reid on June 20, 2008, 08:00:41 PM
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Enerywhere i go to buy a regulator, the person serving me askes if i would like it to be a negative or positive regulator?!
is there a difference?
which one should i buy?
5v negitive
5v positive
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Hi Private Reid: Yes there is a difference. Not to be a smart ass but I don't know what you are builting so I don't which one you need. What it means is if your ground is negative and the other power rail is positive then that's a positive regulator. If your ground is positive and the other power rail negative then it's negative regulator.
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The vast majority of the time you want a positive 5V regulator.
For example, going from a 9.6V battery pack down to 5V to power a microcontroller will require a positive 5V regulator, such as the classic LM7805.
Negative regulators are generally only used for creating regulated negative rails for use with certain amplifier circuits.