Good afternoon,

First off let me apologize for my.....noobness I believe the term is.

I recently purchased the Larson Scanner and, like many other people, wish to run this from a 12V source.

I have been searching online and in some electronics stores for about a week now (maybe longer), and I have been able to find 3.3V regulators, both individual chips and entire boards, but no 3V regulators. Will the extra 0.3V make that much of a difference?

I am considering this option:

http://www.futurlec.com/3V3_Regulator.shtml

or if just the regulator is needed without an entire board, what about this:

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/526

Are either of these good options, or is there something better/cheaper out there? Is there an actual 3V regulator board or chip?

Any suggestions/website links would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thank you....I look forward to securing my power supply so I can complete my project!

Have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,
Steve

The futurlec regulator option will work, but it's pretty serious overkill. The part from sparkfun will work as well, once you add the capacitors that it requires.

You don't *need* a regulated power supply; just using a voltage divider down from 12 V to 3 V would work well enough. Also, you could run it at 5 V instead, by swapping out the resistors for a different value.

Thank you for the quick reply

Unless you have a different suggestion I guess I'll just go with the Futurlec board, since it should be everything in one...although I would love to find a slightly more cost effective solution for a novice...as I am designing a new PC component and hope to be able to replicate it once I finish my prototype. You wouldnt happen to know of a link to a complete solution which would be more appropriate for this project? Something not quite so "overkill".

So just to confirm you are saying that running the Larson Scanner at 3.3V is not going to be an issue?


Thank you for your assistance!

Take Care,
Steve

3.3 V will be just fine.