Hey,
My experience for circuits and such is just down to a minimum, i get the jist of how things work but be patient as i am not an expert. I have just started a project for building led light for my friends rc car. He wants to use a 9v battery so first off i though that resistors would do the trick, but thinking more into it i realized that the leds would just get dimmer as the battery ran below a about 8.5, im looking for full brightness at all times. Now the voltage regulator comes in, i bought a LM1117 Low Dropout Voltage Regulator 3.3V 800ma and wired it up. now I can get 3.3v at all times until the voltage drops below about 4.5v. Now my problem. HEAT, the regulator creates a huge amount of heat. I'm fine with a small heat sink (which i was planning on having anyways) but it seems that only a very large heat sink would cut it, which seems ridiculous considering that they are just leds on an rc car. Is their a way to wire resistors into the circuit to lessen the heat? or is their a simpler way that i am just not seeing
Thanks in advance to whoever feels like dealing with my lack of knowledge