A 1.8V-safe amplifier

When working with embedded development boards (such as the Beaglebone and the TM4C Launchpad), it's common to need to restrict any voltages you apply to analog-input pins to a 'safe' range (typically less than 1.8V).

Figure 1 shows one way I came up to do this:

The STMicro LF15ABDT is a low dropout voltage regulator: you give it a voltage between 2.5V and 16V and it outputs a fixed 1.5V.  This 1.5V is used to power an MCP6041 op-amp. - a  rail-to-rail amplifier able to run off a supply as low as 1.4V.  The amplifier's output voltage can obviously never get larger that the 1.5V supply.

Here it is for real (the centre board) with the input (in this case a thermistor signal) coming in on the blue wire and going out to my TM4C Launchpad on the white. The flying leads and lack of ground planes etc. means it isn't going to win any prizes for precision analog design (!), but hey, as a quick way to safely feed the Launchpad's sensitive analog inputs, it does the job.