excess supply current from linear voltage regulator

[flippityflop1]

say i have a linear voltage regulator set at 9V, and current the and is 1A, which is constant and i can't change. and i'm using it to power a small device that runs at 9V, but on average only consumes 350mA.

is there a good possibility that the linear regulator will overload the device with current and possibly even break it?

the linear voltage regulator i'm talking about here isn't about the 0-30V, 0-3A power supply from the projects page, actually i've only barely started on that one yet.

 

[Hero999]

No, look up Ohm's law.

Hint: the voltage output is constant, the current is not & depends on the load.

 

[flippityflop1]

the datasheet says it has an output of 1A, so i thought there might be a chance it'll try to compensate to maintain that current. though you are right, it'll violate ohm's law.

 

[Hero999]

No it won't  and can't violate Ohm's law.

The only exception is if it had a minimum load current which means you need a load connected, in order to regulate properly, otherwise the output voltage would be higher than specified or be unstable but 350mA should be enough to satisfy that.

 

[Jibby]

Never, rather it will work cooler.

 

[audioguru2]

The 1A rating of the 9V voltage regulator is its MAXIMUM output current. If its load is 1k ohms then its output current is only 9v/1k= 9mA, not 1A. If its load draws 350mA then the output current of the regulator is 350mA, not 1A.