To learn more about electronics in a very different and effective way, check out my Patreon page. Click this link: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab

this man is a national treasure to be protected at all costs

You should get an award for such good teaching skills. Very easy to follow. Thumbs up for sure

Good evening from Greece, I have seen a lot of videos on the internet, but yours is all the money, the best explanation I have seen, well done, you are a person who has the natural gift to convey what you know correctly.

If your new to electronics and wish to learn the basics this guy explains transistors in a very easy manner, his teaching method is basic , simple, and therefore puts information across in an easy to understand way.......A must watch video. Ray H. from the U.K.

This guy has my dream job... He is awesome at what he does and explains it very well... I really miss doing electronic trouble shooting even on my own stuff. Who Knows maybe that since I am retiring I can get a shop setup and do some repair on some old radio's and TVs... If you are new to electronics you want to watch this guy.. If you an old salt like me you will want to watch too. Young or old the man makes it fun and exciting. Something that went away from me after almost 20 years when SOC (systems on a chip) technologies came out.. And pretty much made the art of repairing consumer electronics obsolete with the exception of high end audio and ham gear and others a like. I will say that his working with tubes has sparked my passion as in my education in electronics was split between both tube and solid state devices. My last few years was the death of tube taught theory at least at my particular school. I am very envious of your Tektronix equipment. When working for Western Electric back in the 80s I was assigned a 475B for my use and I absolutely loved that unit. Great Job... Love your channel...

The extra trick to that, is identifying the collector and emitter (of an odd transistor) pins. The reading between the base and emitter is always higher than reading between base & collector. Excellent content Mr Carlson, always enjoy it. Cheers Pete'.

This is so stupid because I feel stupid lol, I have been working with electronics forever (wall socket christmas light bulb kid, 33 now, but lived through charred hands) and designed circuits with bipolar transistors and so on but for some reason this is one of those goofy things I seemed to skip in my education. I am one of those guys that learned on my own and have an extensive knowledge but sometimes simple things like this remind me the holes in my education. What you have done with this youtube channel has been a huge service to people like us who delved heavily into this but never had that teacher there to really hammer the basics down. In fact some of the stuff you teach on your channel actually reminds us or teaches those who thought they knew this stuff because they simply took the rumors as gospel until you proved otherwise. You sir are a real tech, a real joy to watch, and a teacher. The best kind. Please keep up what you do. Us other folks who thought we knew our stuff are watching and going.. "whoah duh, I should have known that!" In the electronics community you are becoming a real hero and you deserve it :)

Sir. I started out in electronics watching my father work on television radios of the 20s though to the 70s. This was back when you could go down to your local 7-11 and test you horizontal vertical hold vacuum tubes and if bad there was a box just below the tube tester where you could find one and your back watching television. The smell of solder along with the voices the would call out call signs from the ham radio. This with my dad taking the time to teach me and later pit me though a home corse from The National Radio Institute or as it was called in my day NRI. On color television repair. It was on from that day on. I've since taking on teaching several of my son's friend's the basics that has turned into 25 a year. Kids who don't have much. I don't charge but the faces that light up when they figure it out is priceless. Since I found you videos you have made it so much easier. Thank you sir it's a pleasure having you in my class twice a week. God bless sir. P.S. If you find you have equipment that has past its usefulness for you. Older oscilloscope not vintage just something you don't use are need and would like to pass it on. It would go to a good cause sir. Please don't think me less for asking because if you don't know you may pass up a blessing. Thank you for your time sir.

Just like to thank you for clarifying what has been a thorn in my side being new to the game. Especially since I've been working on a few old components that have been making go in circles for a while. You made it clear and to the point and that's one less circle I don't have to travel. Cheers!

One of the best tutorial for anyone interested in electronics with an excellent tutor too! Precise and lucidly explained! Thank you so much!

This transistor testing is so simple, yet so obvious when you think about it. Thanks for sharing a great test technique.

Once again a big thank you for the info, very helpful ! For years I've taken apart electronic devices and saved pretty much everything and now have a starting point for checking components ! Have to love the Internet and UKposts for getting so much information out to so many people ! 👏👏

I firmly believe that UKposts has the potential to redefine the entire concept of education. It seems I have always been a hands-on learner rather than a book learner, and Mr Carlson's Lab videos not only are extremely well done and informative, but they leave me wanting to learn even more. Keep up the great work. One problem that I have not seen addressed, and that I am encountering as I try to restore a vintage transistor amp is the issue of finding the modern equivalent of the old numbering system for the semiconductors. Does anyone know of an online resource that addresses this or has Mr Carlson's Lab already done so and I missed it? Any help is greatly appreciated, Again, Keep up the great work.

I’ve watched this before but just want to say thank you for taking the time to pass on your knowledge.

8.24 sec of this video I learned more then weeks of classes. Thank you very much.

If you don't have the pin out data,you can determine the transistor leads to which is the EBC by taking notice of diode voltage across the junction. The Emitter - Base junction will always be slightly higher than the Base - Collector junction in bipolar transistors! This is how I determine the leads, when I need to know quickly. It works many times in circuit for a good transistor. I've used this technique for many years! I hope this helps new technicians working in electronics!

Thank you for these shorter, practical videos.

It's nice to watch a video that doesn't have "um", "ah", "so on so forth", "and stuff like that" every two seconds. You are well spoken!

You have a really good presence as a teacher. I have ADHD and its easy to focus on you lectures even on the things i don't understand yet. You should teach, but only the ones who want to be thought like private schools and universities.

The best and most simple explanation I have seen, thank you. Most vid's drone on for 20 min. and I still had no idea what the heck was going on. In under 10 min. I now have more knowledge than all combined, great way to teach. Thanks again for doing a great job teaching. I have noticed that your the only one I have ever seen use a curve tracer on testing components, and the visual really seems to drive the explanation home for me. It would be great if you could do a video on curve tracers, how they work, and how to use them. They seem to be a piece of test gear that has been forgotten, or not used much anymore, but seems to fascinate me because they can tell you a lot of information otherwise lost. Just a suggestion. Always love your videos, give a "up", and cant wait to see whats next.

Very nicely laid out and easy to understand. When you segment and group them in that fashion, troubleshooting takes on a whole new meaning and speeds up the process; bravo once again Mr. Carlson.

You’re the best, Mr. C. I hope you know how much we appreciate your work. Most generous, helpful, and fun! All the best to you, sir ✌️🎛🤙

Pure concentrated knowledge! Thanks

Well done. Thanks. Some additional information. 1N (for dioides), 2N (for transitors) 3N (special device) are American standards. 2S is Japanese and AC is a germanium and BC (like BC 107) is a silicon European/German standards. AD (germanium) and BD (silicon) are power transitors and BU is a high power switching or high voltage (or both like BU208). 2SA (PNP) and 2SB (NPN) are germanium and 2SC silicon transitors. 2SD's are usually silicon power transitors. There is always exceptions. Germanium transitors were used mostly for pocket radios because of lower voltage drop 0.2V vs 0.7 for silicon. However, the are obsolete now. In some designs, germanium transitors can be replaced with silicon ones. As you said, germanium transitor voltage drop can vary very much with the temperature which decreases when temperature increased.

Glad I caught this one, yes. Thank you Mr. Carlson. Shortly after becoming single I was able to pick up my electronics hobby. My line of work gives me access to a great deal of electronic parts. I have a hard time tossing electronics in the trash. I rob as much as I can when I have time. I started looking up parts on line so I could figure out what I have and what I need to build. I discovered UKposts has so much to offer in electronics it's mind blowing. About a year now I have been dumping money into it, and building simple projects. The projects keep getting bigger. I built my power supply. I should have done a video, it's worth looking at features, and appearance. Really nice, better than off the shelf by far. I'm combining circuits. Learning and experimenting, I really enjoy the LED circuits. I have 3 bread boards on my desk right now, each with several LED circuits, diff leds, colors, shields, mini fiber optic bursts, I built an led vu meter which got cannibalized into a duel flasher circuit. blue green red, it works like a led chase strobe combo, and the single red at the peak hits 3 times pap,pap,pap on each run. Everything in my room that has an led indicator, everything, all leds have been changed to blue. At night my desk looks like, Well I have some ideas, and you are just the right person to help me with my questions. I have some other projects going on cabinetry. I will be seeing you at Patreon some time soon. I'm really looking forward to that. This video bumped me up another notch. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Carlson. I am getting a lot of knowledge from your work. I really appreciated.!

Just found this video on Transistors, I have several model train sound boards that seem to fail for no reason, they have transistors on them and i was told that was usually the weak component. now, maybe i can detect the failed part and fix this hard to find sound boards. Thank You Meistro well done again.

Mr Carlson that was the best explanation l have ever seen how to test transistors pop and non .thank you very much for your excellent didactical explanation for everybody interested in transistor science. A. Ballestri Switzerland .

I comment from time to time, but always a thumbs up on every video. Its just to let you know how we love everything you do.

I discovered your chanel just a few month ago and i starded to whach your videos and i have to say AWSOME I like the way you explain things. Very clear

Excellent presentation. Concise-to the point and clear. Thanks Asress

Nice explanation. My electronic heyday was back in the 2Nxxx days, so your explanation of the 2SA / 2SC notations was much appreciated when dealing with current circuitry. Also, don't forget about the catastrophic "collector-to-emitter" short

mate. this is awesome. instead of blasting the audience with different types of transistors, you actually showed us a system. im gonna remember most of this. :)

This video is a great one. I like how you explained everything about transistor naming and testing. It helped me a lot. Thank you. :)

Sir, you just taught me a system of identifying transistors that I was completely unaware of after 35 years servicing home entertainment products! Thank you for your informative and interesting videos!

You, unlike some other video's, explain things very well. I've been repairing certain things like guitar amps and audio stuff for years without doing actual electronic repair or, just by testing what I knew how to test and looking for burnt components or bad traces etc, bad grounds.... I needed to know how these work and your explanations are excellent. I'm 65 and my wife decided I should take a course at a local college and if I do, I hope they explain things like you do. A friend of mine just explained a couple things to me on reading resistor codes and helped me out with the multiplier part, I was like that's it? I was always terrible with math but logic is how my brain works. Once I looked at things in a different way, I have no problems learning what I could never do before. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!!! I'm certainly in on watching the rest of your video's......

Nice video, thanks. I've been using a diode checker (or more commonly a VOM) for preliminary transistor checking for about 50 years now. But then I grew up in the TO-5 and TO-92 era. In that case the basing was usually EBC clockwise, looking at the bottom of the can with the leads at 12, 3, and 6 o'clock positions. Early TO-92 packages also had the same pinout, before they went to putting all three leads in a plane.

What a great teacher you are Mr. Carlson! Thank you!

Notwithstanding the "bipolar transistors" issue below, this is a very informative vid to start out learning about semiconductors. I find most of Carlson's lab vids very informative and helpful for the student.

Always great explanations clear and concise. thanks for sharing Paul.

Simple and effective! Thanks Paul!

You are a legend. You don't know how stupid I feel that I'd never put 2+2 to see that N correlates to the NEGATIVE lead and P correlates to the POSITIVE lead. I've always sort of known how the N and P types work theoretically. I don't use diodes often so it's always a little fuzzy. I just look up every once in a while how to test transistors when I need it and always forget after I do it. I'm a big fan of making connections like Pnumonic devices to remember stuff. I've watched tutorials on this several times buy yours was by far the the most helpful.

Thank you Mr Carlson.. you have just cleared up around 40 years of mystery surrounding transistors...lol Nothing I have ever read, followed, watched(and built from) has ever explained transistors in such a simple way. The moment you said "positive", the penny dropped on the NPN/PNP meaning.. With the numbering/clasification system, no one speaks of it, even a book I read some years ago called "transistor identification", go figure! I only remember one book by Forrest Mimms that briefly demonstrated transistor testing and identification, it wasn't 100 percent clear. It is now... Imagine the facepalm moment I had at thinking back through the years to the age of five, when my electronics interest kicked off.. thinking of all those years of not understanding transistors and how stupid I feel today! 🤣

Best explanation and test procedure , thank you.

Excellent video. Thanks for jogging my memory!

Thank you for your simple and effective way of checking transistors :)

VERY nice and SIMPLE explanation. You really broke it down well into layman's terms. GOOD JOB!

Thanks for sharing your knowledge Mr. Carlson.

Thank You for this video. I've been needing to see this for years.

I have to pause right here at 2:45, drop down here and thank you, You know how much time you just saved me, looking things up,? Yes I"m sure you do. Thank you very much; knowing the codes makes a huge difference. Thank you. Seriously. Oh yes, I subscribed, I have seen a few of your videos now, and I like your presentations, you make it enjoyable like it should be, clear and simple, and electronics is easily enjoyable., no end to what you can do,. Fun stuff, I'd like to see what you work on for yourself, all the cool stuff you build. I'll be here.

Extreamly well done. wish you were my physics teacher about 45 years ago, oh wait we did not have to-92 back then. Great job. Thanks and keep it up.

Wow thank you this video was very helpful I've been trying to learn vintage electronics so watching this was very helpful specially for testing solid-state transistors

Wow... with one diagram you have cleared up my misunderstanding of the difference between NPN and PNP ... thank you. Awesome vids.

Trying to find info on testing transistors in my vintage 1978 FM receiver, I initially thought I had a Mosfet Transistor, but later when I googled the transistor p/n (2SB595 & 2SD525) I noticed that the terminology of the three terminals on the transistors stated on the datasheet was different than that being used by Mosfet transistors. Mosfets terminals are named: gate drain and source; while Bipolar terminals are named Emitter Collector Base. The datasheet I found also identified that the B595 was a PNP (Emitter, Collector, Base) and the D525 was a NPN (Base, Collector, Emitter) transistor. After watching a ton of videos on transistors, I found your video to be the best one for my application, and that my transistors were good, your video was very helpful, and well done.

Best video on this subject I have come across!

Thanks you so much again mr Paul for giving us a clearly information with transistors and how to identify that thing's..

Good job sir. Always refreshing seeing one of your videos.

I really like your way of testing.Granted its not 100% but its a great way for 99.9% or us to get to where we need to be.

Thanks for making since of this, as usual, Paul.

A very helpful video, Thank you, Mr.Paul.

Dude that was the best explanation of a trans yet I have seen. Thanks

Very,Very good explanation of how to check the two types,made my day.Now it has been thoroughly simplified,Thank You.

Best video on subject hands down!

Thanks. Straightforward..practical and useful.

Terrific job. Thanks for taking your time and sharing your knowlege. Again very clear explanations.

love your work, thanks for your time, cheers

Very informative as usual, thank you very much!

What a great educational video. Great information. Thank you for sharing.

thanks for the video, just got into Electronics, your video was very helpful! thanks again

Thank you for teaching us electronic for free.

Excellent and very clear video. Thanks. Keep up the good work

I love this simple explanation.

Hey Mr Carlson's Lab I wish there was a better way I could express my gratitude for your concise and clear-cut explanation of this matter. It's really cleared up the confusion I came across with some of the transistors I've been testing over the past couple days. Thank you for sharing this information, and thank you for sharing it for free. Sub'd!

This is an excellent video. Thank you VERY much!

Great explanation of the difference in identification of transistors. Wish I found this video earlier. So used to the jedec 1 2 3n system. Really tedious looking up components in a thick substitution book in the pre- internet days. Great vid here👍

I recently discovered your channel.. impressive job Mr. Carlson!

Nice tutorial but a note on the 2S transistor system. You might think a transistor marked C144 is a 2SC144 but its not. It really is a DTC144 which is a silicon transistor with a built in resistor in series with the base intended for digital switching purposes. If you didn't know this then testing it as a normal transistor would make you think it was faulty.

Hi Mr. Carlson, Your scary good. So glad to be a sub. Between you, All American Five Radio, Mr. Richard McWhorter, Uncle Doug and a few others, I am really learning a lot about electronics and glad for it, Thankyou for sharing your vast knowledge of the subject and I refer you in my comments to other electrically inclined UKpostsr's. Awesome channel. Take care, be good, C.

great video thats the kind of stuff that helps us beginners and troubleshooting. thanks jeff for your tip too.

I went to your link, suddenly I was right inside your lab, as the home page opened across eyefinity triple screen,: boom I'm sitting right where you sit in a full size lab. It was amazing., really nice equipment. I'm in your lab looking at it actual size; virtually. I was not expecting that , I think I saw some videos from there. You have some really good offers there, very reasonable, Thanks, GTK very handy.

thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom.

I know that there's been lots of vids online about transistors but this is simple and informative. thanks for sharing. I do have a request though. Over the years various transistors have been taken out of manufacture and it would make a great topic showing how to select a replacement transistor from currently manufactured stock. 2SC1969 etc is an example if I recall is no longer available very easily. I'm sure there's many like me who once they start staring at endless data sheets the head starts to fog over and get lost in endless comparisons. Thanks again for the videos and keep them coming best regards Sean in the UK

thanks! you make it look simple.

great one for transistors. makes it alot easier than depending on google all the time since i would have to swivel around and move acros the room. thanks and keep em coming.

best info if seen on this thank you its simple things that we come back to that are inportant that must be refreshed from times that are forgoten from math, egnostic over and over involvment.

Great video and very well explained thank you

informative approach . many thanks !

Ver good video. Useful and easy to learn. Thanks a lot for your time I really enjoy it. Carlos

This is a very great video! Thank you very much and my best compliments from Italy. Super Like.

clear explanation.. wow... it's amazing.....

well done, i liked your explanations and i look more from you

very nice explanation and very clear! thanks bro.

Thank you most kindly Sir, very helpful. I am a valve guy ( tubes to all you buddies across the pond ) . Yes, The A673 looks cute and HARD at the same time !!!!!!! There are some killer looking odd/old tubes out there also.

You do a great job with your videos. Thanks

Seriously, why did they have to change the locations of the E-B-C? It made so much more sense for it to be in the middle. Thank you, enjoy your brilliance.

Thank you this video was very helpful!

Can you believe that you can get a degree in engineering and they never teach you this ! it is the kind of things you have to look for and learn for yourself. Thanks !

Really appreciate your videos. Great work thanks

Awesome explanation!! You deserve more subs and views!