I'm trying to figure out max voltages, but the datasheet for the TIP120 appears to have 3 differnet max voltages, which appear to be across Collector-Base. Collector-Emitter, and Emitter-Base.
I thought I was using a voltage regulator at first and hooked a 9v + up to the base, ground to the collector, and an led to the emitter then back to ground. This made the transistor get very hot.
So I looked up the TIP120 to try and figure out what voltages it can take and discovered it was a transitor not a regulator, but still trying to find out what is an acceptable voltage to put on the Base to activate the transistor, I don't understand why the datasheet want's to combine it with the collector or the emitter.
I would think it would be Base = x volts, while collector goes to ground, and emitter goes to the ground terminal of the load circuit. So Collector_base / Collector-Emitter and Emitter-Base makes no sense.
https://www.adafruit.com/datasheets/TIP120.pdf
I thought I was using a voltage regulator at first and hooked a 9v + up to the base, ground to the collector, and an led to the emitter then back to ground. This made the transistor get very hot.
So I looked up the TIP120 to try and figure out what voltages it can take and discovered it was a transitor not a regulator, but still trying to find out what is an acceptable voltage to put on the Base to activate the transistor, I don't understand why the datasheet want's to combine it with the collector or the emitter.
I would think it would be Base = x volts, while collector goes to ground, and emitter goes to the ground terminal of the load circuit. So Collector_base / Collector-Emitter and Emitter-Base makes no sense.
https://www.adafruit.com/datasheets/TIP120.pdf