Re: Pin layout for a voltage regulator

"steve" <sgonedes@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:8663oclnl7.fsf@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "ian field" <gangprobing.alien@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>
> < "the dip****" <sgonedes@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> < news:868wtx3mc1.fsf@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> < As others have pointed out the 78xx and 79xx regulators have different
> < pinout also
>
> [ ... cut ... ]
>
> I finally got frustrated and blew the damn regulator up. I never seen
> something fly that far. Luckily I used one of them heat sinks. Damn
thing
> gets hot as hell. Must have a fuse inside of it - I wish I could look 
> inside
> the case (I dunno all the names for cases, it was probably made of 
> plastic).
> I just was doing stupid experiments. (I thought that it was a negative
> voltage regulator so I could flip the capacitors around - it seemed to 
> work
> but that fuse finally gave way.) I was getting nasty spikes and was 
> annoyed.
> Thanks all, for the replies - it's nice to talk to people sometimes...
>
> Anywayz...
>
> < the TL431 is an adjustable zener not a voltage regulator.
>
> How can a zener be adjustable aside of external components and such?

The TL431 is known by various names - "adjustable zener" and "adjustable 
shunt regulator" being just two of them, in actual fact it is a comparator

with a 100mA sink output and a built in 2.5V reference.