Voltage regulation question

[Gorkde]

Idid a project that has a 12V power board for my motor I use.

I wanted to regulate it down to 5V and use that as Vin for my ESP32 board.

So I set up an 7805 voltage regulator and basically it all works fine but the voltage regulator gets to around 50°C when I leave the casimg open.

Since it will get even hotter on a warm day and with the closed case.

So basically it could get up to 100C I expect which is way too hot for my liking.

So what simple and modern electronics would you suggest me to use to regulate 12V down to 5V, that doesn't produce so much heat?

[jim-p]

A 5V output buck regulator, sometimes called a step-down.

[Gorkde]

Thanks!
Any suggestions on standard parts there that most people use?

[LarryD]

• How is your motor powered ?

• Show us the schematic of your proposed circuit.

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MT3608

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DC 5.5-32V to 5V/1A Buck Module Positive Voltage Regulator TO-220 LM7805

[Gorkde]

The motor is controlled by a step driver using 12V.
Since my schematics is pretty complicated (ESP, stepdriver, multiple input/output stuff, soundcard and so on) it makes no sense to post all of that.

Fir this project I ordered a pre-made board similar to what you posted.

But when I want to design a pcb for another project lateron is there a standard buck converter chip that uses only a few parts like the 7805 but just as buck converter?

I assume there should be a similar standard unit that people use on their pcb right?

[Deva_Rishi]

First of all if you add significant heatsink to a 7805 it should still do the trick. They have an automatic over-heat shut down function which kicks in at 115c of the top of my head. That said i have also switched to a buck converter for the same application, though i tend to draw a bit more with some extra 5v components.

the LM2596 is what you would want, just a diode and an inductor extra compared to the 7805. Comes in a few varieties, of course 5v but also 3.3v and adjustable. If you have no real 5v devices you should probably just go for the 3.3v version, so also your ESP32 pcb stays really cool. There are SMT versions which allow you to use the PCB as a heatsink as well. (i do that using a 7805, and that actually does suffice, but does get a tad warm as well.)