Just some technical info in this if anyone trips over this thread, consider the following diagram of a voltage divider:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pcbheaven.com&#x2F;wikipages&#x2F;images&#x2F;voltagedivider_1235725460.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pcbheaven.com&#x2F;wikipages&#x2F;images&#x2F;voltagedivider_1235725...</a><p>The Rload and R2 are parallel resistors really so if Rload is really low which it is generally if it&#x27;s doing anything then it will effectively shrink the R2 resistance (Rload || R2) and therefore voltage. Then whatever is connected as Rload won&#x27;t get enough volts + current.<p>You can fix this to some degree by using very low values of R1 and R2 but then they start to sink lots of current as they are in series across the power supply and get hot so this becomes an efficiency problem. If you&#x27;re really unlucky the magic smoke comes out or you touch one and burn your fingers emitting a nice bacon smell.<p>You can fix all of this with a single NPN transistor and a zener diode pretty easily but you might as well use a regulator IC then.<p>Analogue electronics is fun even if it does burn and explode in your face occasionally! My shit blows up all the time: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;GZBKblt.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;GZBKblt.jpg</a>