regulator....7815 same as 78M15 ?

[daz]

title says it all. I have to replace a 7815 and have this one labeled 78M15. From what i can tell it may be 1/2 the current handling, yes? Do regulators in digital devices like pods generally need to handle an amp?

edit: found a 7818, seems like a likely sub, yes?

[nickb]

title says it all. I have to replace a 7815 and have this one labeled 78M15. From what i can tell it may be 1/2 the current handling, yes? Do regulators in digital devices like pods generally need to handle an amp?

edit: found a 7818, seems like a likely sub, yes?

Use a 7815.
78M15 will likely be too low power and a 7818 is 18V - three V too many.

[Mick Bailey]

Digital gear can be quite power-hungry due to the sheer number of devices and effective transistor count. Maybe a 1/2 amp regulator would do, but given how tight specs are in consumer equipment I'd stick with using the oem part. Aside from the actual current consumption, it's always good with devices that run warm/hot to not run them at their maximum rating and allow a bit of 'sleeve'.

[Enzo]

Digital circuits usually run on 5v or less. The 15v rails are usually for the analog.

[Mick Bailey]

Agreed, though I sometimes get equipment where the +15v rail is then regulated down to 5v or 3.3v for the digital side.

[Enzo]

True.

[km6xz]

What case style, TO-220-3, D2PAK etc? If they could get away with it the cheaper 78M15 they would have because $0.10 adds up pretty quickly when you buy 200,000