Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Need help to finalize my circuit
Message-ID: <1989Nov8.053847.9348@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1508@clyde.Concordia.CA> <10040029@hprmokg.HP.COM>
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 89 05:38:47 GMT

In article <10040029@hprmokg.HP.COM> barry@hprmokg.HP.COM (Barry Fowler) writes:
>The problem may (or may not) be a result of this.  I would look at it
>with a 'scope.  I have found that the regulators don't regulate running
>open circuit.  Some type of resistive load could be substituted ...

In fact, if you look at the data sheet carefully, regulation is specified
over a specific range of currents, and the low end is *not* zero.  When
powering something like CMOS that may draw nearly zero current at times,
one sometimes has to put a resistor across the output to guarantee the
minimum load the regulator needs.
-- 
A bit of tolerance is worth a  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
megabyte of flaming.           | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu