"Roy J. Tellason" bravely wrote to "MIKE ROSS" (09 Sep
03  12:06:05)
 --- on the heady topic of "VEHICLE LED'S"

 RJT> MIKE ROSS wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

 MR> So there you have it: a transistor can be used as a low loss
 MR> rectifier.

 RJT> Hmm.  But you'd need to get specific transistors to do this?

Definitely! Certainly for anything above the 6v AC we were discussing.
It all depends on the E-B breakdown voltage because as we saw when
inverse biased the normal emitter becomes the collector. I think some
old computer transistors were the first that turned me on to the
possibility. However, it's a rare application, in fact I've only ever
seen but 2 cases of a transistor being used as a rectifier.

I don't know if you're like me but I like the idea of putting components
to use in tasks to which we don't normally ascribe them. For example
using a logic ic parity circuit as an address decoder. Logic circuits
especially are great to find odd uses for them. Since they are but
building blocks, what one builds with them doesn't alway have to be a
box with windows... 

 Mike
 ****

... Techs would rather pee on an electric fence for the light show
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30