IC 7805 Voltage Regulator

IC 7805 Voltage Regulator IC, Working, Description and Pin out Diagram

IC 7805 is a 5V Voltage Regulator that restricts the output voltage to 5V output for various ranges of input voltage. It acts as an excellent component against input voltage fluctuations for circuits, and adds an additional safety to your circuitry. It is inexpensive, easily available and very much commonly used. With few capacitors and this IC you can build pretty solid and reliable voltage regulator in no time. A Circuit diagram with pinout is given. It also comes with provision to add heatsink.

The maximum value for input to the voltage regulator is 35V. It can provide a constant steady voltage flow of 5V for higher voltage input till the threshold limit of 35V. If the input voltage is near to 7.2V to 12V then it does not produce any heat and hence no need of heatsink. Higher the input volts - the more it gets heated up, and excess electricity is liberated as heat from 7805. Hence the provision of heatsink. IC7805 also comes as smaller SMD component as well.

IC 7805 is a series of 78XX voltage regulators. It’s a standard, from the name the last two digits 05 denotes the amount of voltage that it regulates. Hence a 7805 would regulate 5v and 7806 would regulate 6V and so on.

The schematic given below shows how to use a 7805 IC, there are 3 pins in IC 7805, pin 1 takes the input voltage and pin 3 produces the output voltage. The GND of both input and out are given to pin 2.

 

IC 7805

 

7805 VOLTAGE REGULATOR IC CIRCUIT

7805 Voltage Regulator IC for regulating voltage to 5v

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IC 7805 Schematic

The regulator performs best when the input is of 7.2V to 35V, below 7.2 V would result in voltage drop. Hence to avoid power loss try to maintain the input to 7.2V to 9V. I would highly recommend to use this schematic when you working with costly components such as Microcontrollers, which is pretty much prone to damaged on higher voltages, for such situation ensure IC 7805 Voltage Regulator is used. For more information on specifications of 7805 Voltage Regulator please refer the data sheet (IC 7805 Voltage Regulator Data Sheet).

 

Update

Linear regulator like IC 7805 has performance issues with respect to battery life and Power loss. If you are looking for an alternative for IC 7805 with better efficiency and less power loss, then I would recommend my post on DC Buck Switching voltage regulator.

Where to Buy

Linear regulators are cost effective and inexpensive, which is also another factor for its reputation and is almost available in any electronic store. IC 7805 costs around approximately 20 to 30 Rupees in Indian currency(less than a dollar). Now a days online sellers offer them at much cheaper price for bulk orders.

7805 - Pack of 5

7805 - Pack of 10

Introduction to voltage regulator | Description voltage regulator:-

Voltage Regulator is one of the most important and commonly used electrical components. Voltage Regulators are responsible for maintaining a steady voltage across an Electronic system. Voltage fluctuations may result in undesirable effect on an electronic system, so to maintaining a steady constant voltage is necessary according to the voltage requirement of a system.

Let us assume a condition when a simple light emitting diode can take a max of 3V to the max, what happens if the voltage input exceeds 3V ?, of course the diode will burn out. This is also common with all electronic components like, led’s, capacitors, diodes etc. The slightest increase in voltage may result in the failure of entire system by damaging the other components too. For avoiding Damage in such situations voltage regulator are used for regulated power supply.