Resistor

Previously, we looked at resistor voltage dividers. Sometimes I get questions about using these instead of regulators. In this video, I show why that doesn’t work. In fact, I go one step further and show that Zener regulators do not work either. Voltage Divider as a Regulator Show Notes Other videos to watch #13: Voltage Dividers #7: Comparing Uno to Pi #17: Linear Regulators Links Zener Diode makes for a lousy regulator 3 (baldengineer.com) In the episode, I am featuring the Adafruit Huzzah ESP8266 breakout 4. I highly recommend this board if you are interested in the ESP8266. It doesn’t have a serial to USB interface. However, it is far more reliable (and usable) than those worthless $5 8266 boards on eBay. (By Far.)

Video Switching regulators make use of the energy storage properties of capacitors and inductors. A transistor, or switch, controls the charging and discharging. This method makes for an efficient regulator but can be difficult to design. Show Notes Here are links to the products mentioned in AddOhms #18:

https://youtu.be/81zNcctopBI What was the first electronic component you played with? It was probably a LED. They’re fun to blink in patterns or learn to fade. Most projects (and products) use them for useful indicators. LEDs add magic to every electronics project. Often not understand is what else you need to make that LED work correctly. Learn what current limiting resistors do for LEDs and watch what happens when you don’t use one.