Category:Voltage Regulators

The term 'voltage regulator' refers to any device that keeps a constant voltage going for a range of loads. See the Wikipedia article on voltage regulators for a reasonably detailed description. Generally in electronics, regulators come in the form of integrated silicon chips. The most common variety are 'linear regulators'.

Regulators are used to take a power supply that provides unreliable / wobbly / too-high voltage (e.g. a cheap-and-cheerful battery-eliminator power brick), and shaves off a bit at the top to produce a steady, smooth, controlled output voltage.