Friday, January 14, 2011
Lochmaster - nice software, but beware transistors
Lochmaster 4 is a nice stripboard layout package, reasonably priced. BUT it has one real nasty - the default TO-92 (flattened cylinder) transistor package has its pins the opposite way round to the most common orientation. (Why on earth do we have a supposed standard like TO-92 which tolerates either of two opposite pin configurations?)
Lochmaster DOES offer transistor components with the "most common" orientation (ie E, B, C looking at the flat front with the pins running vertically downwards) but they are further down the list (BC639 for NPN and BC640 for PNP) - you can move them up the list so that they are at the top when you come to choose a transistor.
Lochmaster DOES offer transistor components with the "most common" orientation (ie E, B, C looking at the flat front with the pins running vertically downwards) but they are further down the list (BC639 for NPN and BC640 for PNP) - you can move them up the list so that they are at the top when you come to choose a transistor.
# posted by John Geddes @ 10:20 am 
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TO-92 is a JEDEC case name. JEDEC is therefore more commonly associated with the 2N series of transistors with a USA origin . These devices, for reasons unknown, differ in orientation from that of the European BC series though they clearly use a similar case shape.
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