Change voltage?

[corytran]

Is there a chip that can lower the voltage on a power source?

Say i have 2 devices that need to be powered simultaneously...but one uses 12v's and the other 6v's....


EDIT: Nevermind i found out what it's called...sorry hehe

[airman00]

voltage regulator is one way to do that

220_Negative_Voltage_Regulator_012950.jpg

[corytran]

I need some help working the voltage converter...

So i have no idea how it works...I think the middle prong is the ground connection right?

If someone can explain to me in detail how to use a voltage converter i would really appreciate it...THANKS!!!

[paulstreats]

the central pin is usually ground, 1 pin will be input voltage level say +9, and one will be output voltage level say +5. the output voltage uses the output pin for v+ and also shares the ground pin. I wont go into detail about which pin is the input without knowing the part number, because they do change sometimes (i got stung by this not long ago, i made a power bus with a 5.5v regulator then a 3.3v regulator in line with it for two different voltage levels. I presumed that because they were the same package and i bought them from the same place the the pins would be identical but they werent).

The $50 robot uses a 5v regulator, you might want to look at that for a working example(just check that the pins on your device are the same)

[Admin]

A good place to check is the datasheet for the part (google for '<part number> datasheet pdf') . . . they are a bit overwhelming at first, but you get used to them after awhile.

[corytran]

Can someone explain this diagram to me?  It's so confusing....

[Admin]

VI (voltage in) is where you attach + of your battery.

Vo (voltage out) is the output regulated voltage (5V or whatever).

The .22uF and .1uF are capacitors.

And the symbol at the bottom right (those horizontal dashes) represents ground, where you attach the - of the battery and - of everything else.

[corytran]

So are you saying the ground (-) is going to come from the battery to the middle pin and then out of the middle pin to the motor?

That sounds simple enough.....hehe THANKS ADMIN you're the BEST! 

[Admin]

the ground (-) is going to come from the battery to the middle pin

yes . . .

and then out of the middle pin to the motor?

well this depends on what you want your motor to do. if you are using a motor driver, you want the ground from the middle pin and battery to also connect to the ground of the motor driver, but not the motor itself. the motor then connects to the motor pins on the motor driver (or to that relay device you showed in another post).