Breadboarding: How to Connect the 7805 Voltage Regulator

The 7805 voltage regulator is connected to a breadboard to provide 5 volts to the circuit. Two capacitors are connected to the voltage regulator, 10uf (microfarad) on the input and .1uf on the output to reduce the peak to peak voltage difference. Two sets of batteries are tested with this voltage regulator and the voltage dropout is determined by subtracting the input voltage to the output voltage. The minimum recommended input voltage is 8 volts and the determined dropout is 1.5 volts. The 8 volts gives a .5 volt margin.