How to identify diodes from diodes, transistors from other t

[Albert]

Hi,

I'm pretty new to electronics. At school I'm making transistor switch,
crystal radios, and crystal radios with amplification. Now in the room
is the resister colour code which I can read pretty well, and I know
where to put the right transistors by reading the colour 'bands'. I
can also read '3-digit and a letter' capacitor codes.

However, I can't seem to distinguish LED's, Integrated Circuits,
Transistors or diodes! On a diode it reads 1N4148, on a transistor it
states BC548 but what does this all mean? I don't imagine IC's have
some 'value' or 'coding' since it's a circuit itself. And once I've
worked out how to 'read diodes' hopefully I'll be able to read light-
emitting ones too!

Thanks for any help,

albert

 

[Ross Herbert]

On Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:56:49 -0700, Albert
<albert.xtheunknown0@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I'm pretty new to electronics. At school I'm making transistor
switch,
crystal radios, and crystal radios with amplification. Now in the
room
is the resister colour code which I can read pretty well, and I know
where to put the right transistors by reading the colour 'bands'. I
can also read '3-digit and a letter' capacitor codes.

However, I can't seem to distinguish LED's, Integrated Circuits,
Transistors or diodes! On a diode it reads 1N4148, on a transistor it
states BC548 but what does this all mean? I don't imagine IC's have
some 'value' or 'coding' since it's a circuit itself. And once I've
worked out how to 'read diodes' hopefully I'll be able to read light-
emitting ones too!

Thanks for any help,

albert

Think of all these component designators as the "names" of the boys
and girls in your class. Each one of them will have certain
characteristics which are slightly different to one another and as you
slowly become familiar with the characteristics of these students you
will begin to associate their names with those characteristics. In a
similar manner you can become familiar with the names of electronic
components and immediately associate those names with their
characteristics.

For the newcomer there is absolutely no better way to find out about
electronic components than to read books, magazines and anything which
describes basic electronics. Only by familiarity with the components
and studying how they work will you gather the necessary insight which
will enable you to instinctively recognise a component and what it
does by its "name".

There are many web based tutorial sites which can give valuable
assistance. One of these is http://my.integritynet.com.au/purdic/

Read particularly the link describing recommended books.

 

[Eeyore]

Albert wrote:

Hi,

I'm pretty new to electronics. At school I'm making transistor switch,
crystal radios, and crystal radios with amplification. Now in the room
is the resister colour code which I can read pretty well, and I know
where to put the right transistors by reading the colour 'bands'.

Transistors don't have colour bands.

What exactly ARE you doing ?

Graham

 

[HapticZ]

with approx 50000 manufacturers and possibly millions of various types of
devices, many marked uniquly by various manufacturers, this skill becomes
learned through the years. standard systems of marking are somewhat
non-enforced, but widely accepted as it is easier to sell items to
competitors who can convince the buyers that they can actually replace one
device with another with similar identification markings.

ink. dyes, color ,hues used among devices are varied. fonts, lettering
styles and body color and shapes and permanence will also fluctuate.

if you actually are young and learning this, you have the advantage of
perhaps good eyesight and many years of happy curiosity to appease.

if you have less time to invest learning all this, then limit your choice of
devices to known, readily available stock that you can easily identify and
understand.

learning devices is such as translating among languages, it is never
complete until you experience them. ;-))




"Albert" <albert.xtheunknown0@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1193219809.313005.164020@i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

Hi,

I'm pretty new to electronics. At school I'm making transistor switch,
crystal radios, and crystal radios with amplification. Now in the room
is the resister colour code which I can read pretty well, and I know
where to put the right transistors by reading the colour 'bands'. I
can also read '3-digit and a letter' capacitor codes.

However, I can't seem to distinguish LED's, Integrated Circuits,
Transistors or diodes! On a diode it reads 1N4148, on a transistor it
states BC548 but what does this all mean? I don't imagine IC's have
some 'value' or 'coding' since it's a circuit itself. And once I've
worked out how to 'read diodes' hopefully I'll be able to read light-
emitting ones too!

Thanks for any help,

albert

 

[Peter Bennett]

On Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:56:49 -0700, Albert
<albert.xtheunknown0@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I'm pretty new to electronics. At school I'm making transistor switch,
crystal radios, and crystal radios with amplification. Now in the room
is the resister colour code which I can read pretty well, and I know
where to put the right transistors by reading the colour 'bands'. I
can also read '3-digit and a letter' capacitor codes.

However, I can't seem to distinguish LED's, Integrated Circuits,
Transistors or diodes! On a diode it reads 1N4148, on a transistor it
states BC548 but what does this all mean? I don't imagine IC's have
some 'value' or 'coding' since it's a circuit itself. And once I've
worked out how to 'read diodes' hopefully I'll be able to read light-
emitting ones too!

Thanks for any help,

albert

Unlike the resistor and capacitor colour or number codes which do give
the value of the part, the type numbers on diodes and transistors
(particularly the North American "1Nxxx" and "2Nxxx" types) don't
usually "mean" anything. That is, you can't generally look at a part
number and determine anything about the device - you have to find a
data sheet for that part to find its specifications. (I happen to know
that a 1N4148 is a small signal diode and a 1N4007 is a 1 amp
rectifier - but that's only because I've used both types.)

(The European part number system used for the BC548 transistor you
mentioned does provide some general information on the type of the
device in the letters, but the numeric part is just a sequential
number, so you still have to find a data sheet to get the detailed
spec.)

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

 

[redbelly]

On Oct 24, 5:56 am, Albert <albert.xtheunkno...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I'm pretty new to electronics. At school I'm making transistor switch,
crystal radios, and crystal radios with amplification. Now in the room
is the resister colour code which I can read pretty well, and I know
where to put the right transistors by reading the colour 'bands'. I
can also read '3-digit and a letter' capacitor codes.

However, I can't seem to distinguish LED's, Integrated Circuits,
Transistors or diodes! On a diode it reads 1N4148, on a transistor it
states BC548 but what does this all mean? I don't imagine IC's have
some 'value' or 'coding' since it's a circuit itself. And once I've
worked out how to 'read diodes' hopefully I'll be able to read light-
emitting ones too!

Thanks for any help,

albert

As was said elsewhere, you need a datasheet to determine the
properties of diodes, transistors, IC's, etc. For example if you
google on this:
1n4148 datasheet
then you can get a datasheet for this device. There will be some
variation among different diode manufacturers, but at least you can
get a decent idea of the max. current, operating voltage, max. reverse
voltage, etc.

Mark

 

[Albert]

On Oct 24, 10:51 pm, Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelati...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

Albert wrote:
Hi,

I'm pretty new to electronics. At school I'm making transistor switch,
crystal radios, and crystal radios with amplification. Now in the room
is the resister colour code which I can read pretty well, and I know
where to put the right transistors by reading the colour 'bands'.

Transistors don't have colour bands.

What exactly ARE you doing ?

Graham

Well, I've got an assignment where I've been given the following
components to research: resistor, capacitor, diode, led, transistor
and IC. I have to research its value (or the measuring unit such as
farads or ohms).Then How It's Identified (the bit i'm asking about):
for a resistor, it's easy to write that on a 4-band resistor, the
first two make a 2-digit number, the third is the 'multiplier' (or how
many zeroes to add) and the last, its tolerance. And similarly for a
capacitor (with slight differences, the ones i'm using have numbers
writting on a dark pink circle). The function is pretty easy for
everything, just required a google search and similarly for a circuit
symbol.

So that's exactly WHAT I'm doing: my problem is the How It's
Identified section for the transistor, diodes, and Integrated
circuits. Thanks