AC rectifier and voltage regulator

acledrectifiervoltagevoltage-regulator

I'm a mechanical engineer and my knowledge of electronics is letting me down please help. I'm looking to run a 1.5V led from an input signal that can vary from 0.3 to 0.5V ac. I want to make the entire circuit as small as possible. Up to now i found i probably need a full bridge rectifier with a capacitor over it connected to a small voltage regulator like a transistor regulator. Would this work? any advise would be much appreciated.

Best Answer

A small 1:5 transformer will boost the voltage to the 1.5 to 2.5 V range, which will be enough to light up the LED. A current-limiting series resistor may or may not be needed, but just to be safe, make it 100 Ω to limit the current to 10 mA or so.

The LED can withstand the reverse voltage, so no other rectification should be necessary, but if you're really worried about it, just put an ordinary signal diode in parallel with the LED, pointing the other way.

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab