MGBGirl said:
Well, dad and I are going to attempt to build the solid state stabilizer. Hope it works! Has anyone tried their hand at building one and like to give advice to us?
Probably this is too long after the fact, but I just stumbled across this post (I'm a Triumph guy). I recently built my own voltage stabilizer (to install a TR4 temperature gauge into my TR3) and I'm happy with it.
I was a bit worried that most of the solid state conversions use a regulator IC that requires a 2 volt drop in order to regulate. In other words, it cannot output 10.0 volts, if the input drops below 12.0. So I chose a "low dropout" regulator IC, that works down to 10.5 volts.
Although not mentioned in the data sheet, the IC I used apparently requires a bypass capacitor on the input. Running from my bench supply, it oscillated (which caused the output to appear too high). Adding a 0.1 uF tantalum to the input solved the problem.
I also added a small LED "just because".
IMO if the VS fails, it's not likely to hurt the instruments. The exception might be if you have a full tank of gas and don't notice the problem, the fuel guage might get overheated. But until the needle is hard against the pin, it is still operating within it's design current, regardless of what the VS is doing. I say go for it.
PM me if you have any questions, I'll be glad to help.