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Circuit building: stop using antique parts (2014)

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Re: Circuit building: stop using antique parts (2014)

#6
Although I am on board with OP's reccomendation, I think many folks using arduino are in the milliamp range; they are not driving amps of current. So the 'constant factor' of obtaining less well known parts from digikey is significant.

Do you really want to provide any more disincentive for budding hobbyists?

Re: Circuit building: stop using antique parts (2014)

#7
The irony is that the MOSFET he suggests to use, the NTD4906N, is listed as obsolete on Digikey.

Which is why I pointed out. A lot of reasons people use antiquated components is probably because documentation and reference schematics are easy to find and have probably been refined to be very reliable.

Re: Circuit building: stop using antique parts (2014)

#9
There is nothing wrong with bipolar transistors. They aren't antiquated. FETs have definitely overtaken them in power applications (for good reason) but it seems hard to displace them for small signal applications. Small signal FETs just aren't that plentiful or cheap. There are many instances where a small signal FET makes sense (level translators, etc) but the cost doesn't justify its use. Using a 2n2222 and the like is appropriate.

On top of that, BJTs excel in many analog applications. There is a good reason why many analog IC companies make parts using a BiCMOS process. If you are doing a discrete analog design (generally for performance reasons) you often need the performance of BJTs or JFETs.

Re: Circuit building: stop using antique parts (2014)

#10
post #5
post #4

You can have my 2N2222's when you pry them from my cold dead hands.

Did you mean "your hot dead hands", heated by all that dissipated power? ;)

If it's an application where you can+do use 1k resistors for current limiting, there's no way they're gonna heat up!

(also, 2n2222's are like $3.49 for 50 on eBay US, via US sellers)

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