For most hobby circuits the choice resolves in about fifteen seconds once you know two numbers: the highest reverse voltage the position will see, and how much forward drop you can afford. The rest of this article explains why those two numbers decide it, and where the answer stops being obvious. The short answer for … Read more
A Schottky diode does the same job as any other diode — it lets current through in one direction and blocks it in the other — and it does that job with less voltage lost and almost no delay when it stops conducting. That combination is why it turns up wherever a small voltage difference … Read more
Almost every beginner destroys something by fitting a diode the wrong way round, and the reason is nearly always the same: the band on the package marks the cathode, and most people assume the banded end is the positive one. Getting this single convention straight prevents the majority of early failures in this device class. … Read more
A diode is the simplest interesting component in electronics: it conducts in one direction and blocks in the other. What makes it worth learning first is that almost every power supply, every battery circuit and every electronic device you own depends on that single behaviour, and the rest of the device catalogue is variations on … Read more
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