MOTM

Hi Paul,

Is it possible these are "counterfeit / reject" transistors that have  
been badged
as 2N3904.....Seems highly unlikely there are 2 versions with  
different pinouts.

Graham

On 27 Feb 2009, at 06:47, Paul Schreiber wrote:

> I had a *long* debugging session with a customer building a MOTM-300  
> VCO
> from parts. Was dead in the water (no outputs). He had previously  
> replaced
> *all* op amps, the MAT-02EH and the LM319. To no avail.
>
> Them we started on the transistors. He noticed that he had 2  
> 'batches' of
> 2N3904s:: 2N3904 - CJ22 and others marked 2N3904 - J04.
>
> It turns out these have *different pinouts*. It's still an "2N3904"  
> but not
> the proper EBC pinout! Which is...errr...NOT per JEDEC standard (the  
> 2N
> means the part is supposed to be in a registered database) but I  
> guess no
> one gives a rat's ass about JEDEC, JAN-TX and all those 'old fart'
> transistor specs.
>
> So, *be very careful* buying 2N3904s, you want EBC pinouts. CHECK  
> THE DATA
> SHEETS!
>
> Paul S.
>
>
>