TECH: 12v to 6v Reducer, make your own. Simple and cheap

I made some of these for my guages. Just intalled them today and looks they work just fine.

All you need really is a very common electrical component, some wire, soldering iron, solder, heatshrink tubing, and electrical connectors.

First: The part... It's called an L7806. It comes in a TO220 package which just is a reference to what shape it is. It is very small maybe 1/2 inch square. It has 3 pins comming out the bottom and a mounting point on the top. The pins looking at it from the front, going left to right, are input, Ground, Output. The 7806 provides 6v from the output at 1 amp. They cost around $.32 - $.50 depending on retailer.

Making the reducer:

I soldered 3 wires directly to the component. 1 to each pin. you can also use the upper mounting hole for ground. The pins are close together, so you will need to use some heat shrink tubing over the pins to make sure they don't short.

Here's the basic idea of it all.. More info to come.

 

Other considerations:

They provide 1 amp each. I'm not sure how much the guages draw, so I made one of these for each of my guages (oil, water, fuel).

The mounting hole is actually intended for a heatsink, I just got them in my car so I'm not sure if they even get warm. I doubt they will with one on each guage, but I put heatsinks on them anyway. If you plan to mount them to a piece of metal, then that would more that do for a heat sink. Again I'm not sure it is even needed.

Last thought.. Since a charging 6v car actually has something close to 7.2 volts I'm not sure if the guages will be a little bit off. With 6v my guages seemed to be working just great, but the fuel level wasn't hooked up yet.

Where do I get em??:

Digikey
Major electrical component supplier. They are $.46 each from them. PN 497-1445-5-ND
sorry had the price for each if buying 1000 of em

Radio Shack also carries them.
some computer stores like Fry's will have them too.

They are super common in the electronics field.

If you have a local electronics component store and not sure what to ask for, just tell them you need a L7806 voltage reducer in a TO-220 package for 1-1.5 amps. There are a few varieties out there, but they should be able to get it for you with that information.

 

Revhead,

Thanks for the tip. This is A LOT cheaper of a solution than any other I've heard so far.


HAMB TECH RULES!


Ed