Get the Right Polarity Every Time.

Step 3: The lazy fix.

the easiest way to fix this is by simply labeling the wires, which i'm too lazy to do, so in order to save my voltage regulator i'm going to add one simple component to the circuit to make sure that the voltage is always going the direction i need it to go.

a bridge rectifier.

it's that simple really.

here look up and I'll show you a picture of it working like that.

did you see it?

good.

now here's the reasoning, under normal usage a bridge rectifier changes ac current into dc, basically a back and forth flow into an always forth flow. so when you hook up a dc voltage to it all that the rectifier is doing is treating it like a normal ac voltage, and rectifying it to the positive and negative terminals. problem solved!