[sdiy] basic electronics question - voltage divider

[jays at aracnet.com]

Aaron,

The main things that I can think of are resistive load, current and noise.

The load is a form of resistor in the circuit and needs to be compensated for. So if the load varies or is low you may need a to regulate the voltage.

Current. If the current required by a load is high you may need some sort of power device to do it. A resistor may not be able to handle the current.

In some cases the device maybe noisy or need to be isolated from noise on the power supply. A regulator could provide that.

Jay S.


Aaron Lanterman wrote:

> 
> On Wed, 22 Feb 2006, Scott Gravenhorst wrote:
> 
> > If you will be powering some circuit with +/-7V, then you would be far
> > better off with two additional regulators to reduce the 15 volts to 7.
> 
> That brings up a question - I sometimes see people using op-amp buffers 
> for voltage dividers to create various supply voltages. Buchla does get 
> to +/- 6v needed for the CA3160's in his timbre generator in the 259.
> 
> Oh, I'm still evil, analyzing the equivalent circuit in the Music Easel 
> is Problem 1 on Homework #3. ;)
> 
> Anyway... I'm not sure when one would want to use an op amp for that sort 
> of thing vs. using a dedicated voltage regulator.
> 
> - Aaron
> 
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