Simple 78xx replacements

[jacken]

I've made a PCB for replacing 78xx regulators with LM317 with the improvements mentioned here. Just add pins and it's a drop in replacement. There's probably a million things to improve so please feel free to download the Eagle files and modify. But please share if you do so. The PCB is easy to make, it's single layer.

[Pano]

Nice idea, thanks for sharing!

[Mooly]

It's an interesting subject (and yours is a nice neat design too) but the practical problem with any regulator, is that no matter how good it is, when you add a few cm of wire or track to the outputs, the output impedance at hf is raised considerabley. So although the noise/hash/impedance may be very low at the reg the noise/hash at it's destination may not be. Although that is nothing to do with the reg design as such, it's one of those real world problems that's not easy to overcome. Part of the answer is to incorporate the regs (such as yours) integrally with the PCB design at any critical points. and use correct grounding schemes.

[jacken]

Originally Posted by Mooly

It's an interesting subject (and yours is a nice neat design too) but the practical problem with any regulator, is that no matter how good it is, when you add a few cm of wire or track to the outputs, the output impedance at hf is raised considerabley. So although the noise/hash/impedance may be very low at the reg the noise/hash at it's destination may not be. Although that is nothing to do with the reg design as such, it's one of those real world problems that's not easy to overcome. Part of the answer is to incorporate the regs (such as yours) integrally with the PCB design at any critical points. and use correct grounding schemes.

Good point. I'll try a before/after test and post the result when I get the time.