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If you also add a pushbutton, you can control the transistor, and thereby the LED, ON and OFF with a button: Choosing Component Values This is the same principle you use to limit the current through an LED to make sure it doesn’t blow up.
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So you’ll automatically get around 0.7V by adding a resistor. If you add a resistor in series, the rest of the voltage drops across the resistor. A diode has a forward voltage that it “grabs” from the available voltage.
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Since most of us don’t have a 0.7V battery, how do we turn on the transistor?Įasy! The base-to-emitter part of a transistor works like a diode. If you had a 0.7V battery, you could have connected it between the base and emitter, and the transistor would have turned ON. To turn the transistor ON, you need a voltage of about 0.7V between the base and the emitter.
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