Voltage regulators from 5 to 15 V for currents of 1 A, can be easily obtained in the form of integrated circuits. This is the case with the 78xx series. This source can supply 5 to 15 V of output voltage according to the IC used. The “xx” indicates the output voltage. For example, the 7806 integrated circuit provides a voltage of 6 V. In the figure below we have the basic configuration for this power supply. We observed some important facts regarding this circuit, which can be of great use to the developer. There are versions with “L” suffixes that are presented in SOT-54 enclosures for currents up to 200 mA. They can be used in cases where we want a lower output current. The output decoupling capacitors may have lower values in some cases, depending on the suffix of the CI and the manufacturer. The voltage regulator integrated circuit must be equipped with a heat radiator. The transformer must have a secondary voltage of at least 2 V greater than that which we want at the output, given by the integrated regulator used. The current must go up to 1 A as desired at the output. The working voltage of C1 must be at least 60% higher than the rms voltage of the secondary of the transformer.
