Re: 12v Gauges
What you really want for as little heat as possible is a series regulator as in 7806-8.
It just turns out enough for what you need instead of burning of the excessive like in a resistor or dropping diode (what you call runtz).
Next issue with a diode is that you got 2 failuremodes...open gages just stop working...shorting out gages have a chance of burning up...so make sure itīs big enough to cope with the dissipation.
Surrounding temperature is a big factor in how good any solid state dissipating heat works so dont stuff it in to tight.
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