alright, my gf bought a portable cd player the other day, and shes gonna plug it into her car. there is a plug on the the ploayer that accepts a 4.5v line. the problem is that all anyone has is 6v cigarette adapters. so i was wondering. how would i go aobut reducing the voltage to 4.5v. reistors? if so what kind and things like that. im totally clueless with electronics, my experience has been limited to changing leds and twisting wires together.
Don't ever use resistors, use 2 diodes (1N4001) in series for loads up to 1 amp. Bands pointing away from the positive supply. They drop about 0.8v each. But I thought car lighter sockets gave 12v? In that case, use a 317T circuit, or a 7805 is probably not too high (5v) to hurt.
Not that I haven't anything against DIY modding. But there are inexpensive DC-DC adapters just for this kind of application. Several are voltage adjustable (12V car to whatever the consumer electronics device reuires), have interchangeable power connections sizes (2.5mm, etc.), are fused, and have reversable polarity. I imagine the parts alone would cost you more than a ready made unit. Just food for thought.
i am aware of the adapters you can buy. but for some reason they are really really expensive. i have one that will change it to 6v, and i could use that and then step down from there. the guy at radioshack said to use a 5v dc regulator, it was 2 bucks. supposed to be close enough to work. so instead of spending 10 or 15 bucks i had to spend a lil over a dollar and a half. hopefully itll work, otherwise ill end up frying the thing.
