Welcome to a new voltlog, today we are building a very simple constant current regulator based on the LM338 linear regulator. This is a very robust and stable classical regulator that is being manufactured by many big names like ST and TI, it has quite a high output current rating of 5A continuous, it even comes in a TO-3 can package but today we’re going to use a TO220 which is more commonly available.
To make a constant current regulator out of this, is very simple, the datasheet gives us the circuit we need to use and we only need a low value resistor to do that plus the optional input bypassing cap which is 0.1uF. We’re going to use this formula to calculate the value of the resistor, so the output current is equal to the Vref divided by the value of the resistor.
External references:
- Joe Smith testing fake SIBA fuses.
- Welectron german distributor of test equipment and genuine fuses at good prices.