You need to go down the FET rabbit hole; I enjoy these jellybean videos.

Another definition of a Jellybean Component: A part that does not get more expensive after EEVblog was reporting about it 🙃

Well you young people: In my hobby days it was Germanium OC71, OC81 OC44 (rf). And you could scrape the paint off an OC71 to make a phototransistor !

Mine are BC547, 550 (for low noise applications), 847 (for SMT), 2N7000, IRF540 (for MOOSEFETs) and MPSA44 (for HV driving applications). Back in the '90s when I learned electronics, I mainly tinkered with BC107. They were around, salvaged from old electronics. Of course I played with 2N3055 too! Happened to build a transistor amp or two. First to watch... it's not 1080p yet!

BC107, 108, 109 was my go-to transistor for *many* years.

Remember Elektor had always in the parts list the jellybean shown as TUN or TUP, and generally around once a year they had a few pages of what would work in either, a pretty long list of transistor types.

It may be just my perception, but it always seemed that US magazines/books used 2N2222, whereas European or UK ones used BC107/8/9 or 547.

I like to use the tip41 & tip42 as fairly high power complementary pairs all the time and they are fairly common even at my local electronics component stores.

Only the 3904/3906, 2222/2907, and 3055/2955 resonated with me. The rest on the list were misses for me.

We use 2n2222's for lots of space stuff! In a fun little hermetic metal "sot23" looking thing. Gold plated case and everything!

I still remember picking up bags of 2N3904’s and 2N2222’s from RadioShack and Allied when they had actual stores you could go in. The higher gain variants of the BC547 and 557 I’ve used as drivers and voltage threshold detectors in audio amps for relay sequencing.

Hey, I'm just thrilled you mentioned my nostalgic BC547's 🙂! I was wondering if they were truly jellybean, or just randomly thrown in the Dick Smith Electronic Kits back in the day (from which I still have this irrational feeling that the BC547 is the one true NPN transistor)

The BC327, BC337, BC546, BC556, BD139, BD140 ,Tip31 ,Tip32 , 2n3055 , 2n2955 are some of the more common i remember using in Australia through the 70's, 80's and 90's

Fun, and always appreciate the speed, energy and enthusiasm! And when you sort of made that Mmmmmm, delicious, sound, that really reminded me of the way I feel when I go through a spec enjoying every little characteristic that a part has. Thank you Dave!

My personal favourites: MPSA42/92 NPN/PNP With VCE=300V!

Re: FETs with BJT part numbers, Microchip has the VN2222.

As transistors were manufactured locally about everywhere in the world, each major region ended up with their own jellybean part numbers.

Good call on the FZT458/558. For me the jellybean BJTs are BC807, BC817, BC846 and BC856. Through-hole equivalents are BC327, BC337, BC546 and BC556.

Below are my favourites from THT era: Generic: BC547 / BC557 , 2N3906 / 2N3904 , 2SC1815 /2SA1015 , 2SC9014 / 2SC9015 , 2SC945 / 2SA733 Low noise: BC549 / BC559 High gain: 2SC3616 Low power RF: 2SC2570 , 2SC9018 Medium power: PBSS4350 / PBSS5350 , SS8050 / SS8550 , BD139/BD140 , 2SD882 / 2SB772 Low VceSat: 2SD1347 / 2SB985 Muting (high Vebo): 2SC2878

When you learn electronics in Europe, the BC54x NPN and BC55x PNP transistors are your "standard" ones. It doesn't matter what type you use, as long it gets the job done aka without turning into a light emitting transistor ;) .

I've been looking forward to more of these jellybean videos.

BC 547 and 557 were the only bjt's i could get at the local hardware store back in the day, so I became a 547 fanboy out of necessity

2N3904/3906, 2N2222 and 2N3055, absolutely. Never worked with the others. I would have added TIP31C and its complementary friends, they were handy TO-220 packages for anything from small audio amps to little DC motor speed controllers.

What had to be mentioned was mentioned. Nothing to argue about. I enjoyed this video 👍

BC547 was hard to come by in the US during COVID. I wound up buying a bunch of 2N4401s and 2N4403s instead. Last time I needed medium current for a one-off, I needed about half an amp, and fished a 2N3053 out of my parts box, along with a little clip-on heat sink. I have absolutely no idea how old that thing was. I don't work with the higher voltages much, so I'll have to remember the 458/558 if I happen to need such a thing. Jellybean RF transistor would have to be the '5179, I think! The SOT-23 version is dirt cheap, 2 GHz transition frequency, other specs stink but maybe you don't need 'em. Lots of DIY ham gear uses it.

when I was in the school, kind of hundreds years ago, the most common one were: BC107, BD139 and 2N3054 (to cover full range of power).

The 2N3055 came in vastly different trade-offs of hfe vsv ft and SOA. Ranged from ft of 800;KHz to 2 MHz. But the 800 KHz SOA was almost the full 115 Watts at its Vcb. The ft 2 MHz variant SOA started to have Second Breakdown dropoff at Vce of only 40 Volts. RCA introduced and JEDEC registered it before SOA was a regular item.

The BFU590GX is really cool to have if you want to work with high frequency stuff. I am a huge fan of that transistor!

Hello Dave, this series is outstanding, please keep going! I think it is useful both for the hobbyist which just wants a part name to put over a function, and for the design engineer which has multi-sourcing constraints from their customer. I happen to be both, depending on the topic, so I would press like twice if it wasn't overflowing to zero. Thanks! (By the way, if I could suggest a next one... I believe optocouplers and maybe just diodes too would be appreciated)

I've always defaulted to 3904/3906s when using jellybean BJTs. I think it's because I like how well matched they are. I couldn't even speculate as to what the PNP equivalent of a 2222 is. That, and when I started off a few years ago, I bought like 500 3904s, not knowing what I was doing. Which is a bit much when you're only using breadboards at the time lol. I just like buying parts for the sake of having them. I don't even use half of the chips I've bought. They're there "just in case". I mean, you never know.

2n3055 was allrounder king in to3 can days but havent seen them in to247 til this video and the BD brothers 140 and 139, for every small project. 2SC5200 and 2SA1943.. every power amp i worked on that used TO3P BJT's and had >100W/ch either used or work with these flawlessly just got a bunch of them now and grouped them for hFE gain to find the best matched pairs

Back in my day, we had the TIP31 and TIP32 as jellybeans too. Now they're long gone...

I was hoping to see some discussion on Darlington transistors in this video, or perhaps it could be a topic for the next top 5. Currently, I'm on the lookout for a Darlington transistor similar to the BD679 but available in an easy-to-solder surface-mount package for switching inductive loads with a µc I've been using the TSM2308CX MOSFET, but I've unfortunately destroyed a few of them. As Dave mentioned, BJTs can often withstand a bit more torture in certain applications.

My go to was always the BC548/558. Thanks to Tricky Dicky's "Fun Way 1" and "Fun Way 2" kits as a kid.

I was brought up with my favourite BC107,8,9 , Tip31,32 and yes the brilliant 2N3055.

BC546-560, 2N2222-2907, MPSA42-92 are all jellybean. If Jellybean diodes are covered then the 1N4007 and 1N4148 have to be the top two surely.

One thing that nearly made me fall off my chair is that there is now a company that has restarted the BC108. That used to be a jellybean part 40 years ago.

Ordered a batch of boards turnkey from PCBWay. Customer in big hurry and cheapskate. Next day PCBWay emails list of short/long-lead parts. Among those MMBT3904 in SOT23. Back and forth, no way to pass the message that it is a jelly-bean part and it is impossible that they don't have 3904 available. I had to change to BC845

I like 2n2222 But also have a lot of s9013 s9015 For medium power, i like them japanese 2sc2655 2sd882 2sb772, typically used to drive the bases of bigger power transistors For big power, tip41c tip42c For big big power, 3055 and 2955

For lower frequency RF, 3904/3906 and the 2222 are good enough. Anything above 10-14 Mhz will be useless but then you're really dealing with those weirder RF BJTs that are too sensitive imo for amateur electronics work unless you really know your stuff. Like the 2sc5551 is out of production and it was one that you could tame with little effort but it's just becoming harder to find anything in the RF BJT lines that won't just turn into an oscillator.

That was fun! Looking forward to your picking out jellybean components in other categories. Some of these are already in my libraries but I need to add the smaller packages and complementary parts in some cases. I'm going to go back through my libraries and review adds and updates for future projects. Thanks again.

Hello Dave, Low voltage low current: BC846 / BC856 More current: MMBT2222 / MMBT2907 Mid power: BCX53 / BCX56 (sot 89) High voltage (160V): MMBT5551 / MMBT5401 High voltage (300V): MPSA92 / MPSA42 High power: TIP35 / TIP36 Small mosfets: BSS138 / BSS84

Jellybean means a very wide variety of applications. So not only new product design but also repair and modifications. And the latter category includes field work. For that reason, in my opinion is a requirement for jellybean that a through hole version must be available.

As most Eastern Europeans, my first transistors were BC170, BD138, BD139, BC107, BC547... Never seen a 2N one before the late 90s.

I recall using the BFY51 on several occasions when additional current was needed beyond what the 2N2222 could provide. Not sure if it was Jellybean but was always readily available.

fun fact: the old school (mainly Ge) BJTs are valued items on ebay. Whatever makes them seen as junk by most of electronics professionnals is seeked by the fuzz pedal makers. Same thing for some discontinued JFETs. Their non-linearities and oddities are needed in some preamps, overdrive and distortion pedals. That and also some kind of weird cult :-)

Another one, I've always used the D44H series for higher power - D44H8 and D44H11 are 60/80V NPN, D45H8 and D45H11 are the complementary 60/80V PNP respectively. Might be starting to dry up though.

BC550 input, BC847 next, BD139 buffer, 2SC5200 an output, and IRFP240. These are the first idea comes to my mind. Of course MPSA18, 2n7002, 2n2222, 2n5551, 2n5486, and J111

Love the Jellybean videos

Europe, Argentina are BC series 547,548 549,. And BD 139 140 2n3055.

Yess I love this series, please continue

Excellent video! I enjoyed it, thank you.

No way. I was _just_ looking today for cheap, reliable and available BJTs as a beginner hobbyist looking to finish my first from-scratch project.

Yes the project that I am working on currently on my bench uses 3904 !!

This kind of videos are very valuable, Dave

I am a big fan of the jelly bean series. Keep them coming.

Also, about the 2222's. The metal can TO-18 2N2222 device uses bond wires in mid-air to connect the BJT's leads to silicon. Its counterpart TO-92 PN2222 is completely encapsulated in epoxy resin which includes the bond wires. Result: The TO-18 midair wires will act as fuses and will melt open in a mild overcurrent situation. In 99% of cases, the emitter will open. On their side, the TO-92 bond wires, covered in epoxy, will require a MUCH higher overcurrent to melt. In fact, Plastic devices will burn short, the silicon die shorting way before the bond wires open. In fact, a Plastic device will explode in case of extreme overcurrent situation.

2SC3356 for a jellybean RF transistor, up to 7ghz NPN and cheap / available from all sorts of OEMs.

Nice video I started my electronic experimentation 30 years ago with a bc107, ac127, bd137, and for higher current I used the famous 2n3055.

Thanks Dave, I have been waiting for a jelly bean episode for a long time!

When I was a kid I happened to tear down a lot of dumpster dive derived consumer audio and RC toy stuff and they happened to be japanese (I was living far away from there) jellybean oriented. Those were mostly the 2SC945 and 2SC1815. I could see JIS stuff having a real "kanban" on their lettering and black/green color on high power stuff to denote PNP or NPN type junction. The town electronics store didn't really sell the low power 2N stuff for some reason (apart from 1N diodes) just the BC, BD, TIP, but especially the BC212. The guy might have grown up on the Philips stuff. I thought that BC212 is a jellybean part, but later I started speculating that the onwer might have just stocked up on too much of a single component. 🙃

I've just unsoldered a 2N3904 lol... and the BC548 is the ultimate , best transistor ever :) BC337 is you want a bit more juice. and 2N3055 if you wanna start really cooking. TIP31/32 was also popular..

I was really looking forward to another jelly bean episode! 😃❤

One thing I miss about metal can transistors, like 2N2222, is that you could cut the lid off and transform it into a (quite basic) light sensitive device that was quite useful long time ago...

Thank you Dave

Hey new episode in jellybeans... Still have bags of BC547/BC557 in my components box :P

I track parts for our company purchasing decisions and lots of discrete and logic IC parts have been eliminated from distributors inventories. Not that we can’t get them but selection and quantities are way way down and prices are way up.

Ah, I also see that the 3904 and 3906 make up a complimentary pair!

My goto signal FETs back in the day were the ZVN3306A & ZVP0106A……..loved those, albeit prone to ESD damage if you weren’t careful during Pcb assembly.

Thanks Dave, nice show. I'd love a show about the rarest of components, the most outragous specs. Somewhat of a electronics freak show.

Interesting take, I grew up with BC548, BD140 and later 2N2222. Dick Smith and Jaycar!

I'm surprised you didn't mention TIP31 and TIP32, personally I'm not a huge fan of them the gain is low but they are fairly common

I use the FMMT619 more often than the 617, as I find its higher Vce more useful than the 617's extra amp of Ice. Consider designing a small automotive or avionics module that has to be able to withstand an alternator load dump. If it needs a 3.3 or 5V power rail that doesn't have to be dead-nuts accurate, I can build a discrete power supply with a resistor, a 619 and a Zener that will easily ride out a load dump, will cost a few pennies and will be more than stable enough for most applications.

Over here bc 237/337 then bc 550/560 BD 139/140...and for sure the 3055..the 2955 was way later they instead did 'pseudo' complementary using 3055 at both sides and a PNP driver in front for the neg. Side I recently build a classic 3055 amp using ± 22 volt rails and four 3055. Dif pair input no current mirror, no current source but only a single resistor and a class A driver (bc 161-16) drivers (for that pseudo PP) and symmetrical supply to omit that ugly output cap... Nice one Dave, thanx 👍😊

2n2222 has been my favorite in a lot of projects

more of these videos please!

2N3055 was manufactured by many various production plants around the world. I had ones from Tungsram (hungary, commie times), american RCA, Czechoslovakian Tesla and some other ones. Hungarian 2N3055 are prone to have low beta, around 30-50 at Ib=10mA, RCA ones were around 100, while Czechoslovakian ones (Motorola license), well above 100. I did an engineer's thesis by building a digital curve tracer and measuring static characteristics of various things I had available. And when I think low power, BC547/2N3904 in the signal amplifier use, 2N2222/BC337 as the low power switch, BD139 as the actual medium power amplifier/switch (12.5W, 1.5A) and then BD911/2N3055 for high power, non jellybean wise, 2SC5200 is a better choice, with some vintage Tesla KD502 (motorola licensed 2N3772) being very nice as well.

MJE13007A were all over the flourescent lamp drivers and chinese PC PSU-s. (That is a high voltage part.)

Obligatory comment to feed the algorithm. Thanks for these videos Dave. Great stuff

Mosfets are tough, but there is 2N7000 & Si230x, AO3400 for starters. In spite of the "brand" numbers they are in fact made by MANY (mostly Asian) manufacturers! IRF3205 & IRFZ44 are runner ups, and YES multiple manufacturers like Vishay. The Si230x are used in SO MANY small devices,.

Jellybean switching: MPS/2N2369 baby!!!

WOW i have been using the Y1's from boards for little circuits. Good to know what it really is called. Thanks Batman.

More jelly bean videos would be excellent.

for me in Canada with 120VAC mains, and for nixies, the pair I always used were the MPSA42/92 transistors, 300V max.

An interesting video would be jellybean parts from "the old days" that are unobtanium but still in some demand. But i'm just a regular dude watching this for fun :)

Wooiooooooo...all time favourite every transistors.... but didn't knew about MOSFET 3055...

I could easily watch the extended 2 hours long version of the 30 jelly beans bjts, mo's, etc.

Thanks for all the good stuff you put out! I just watched all jellybean videos. knew most of them but discovered some good ones. thanks! I'd really like something on DC/DC controllers. Does not sound like something you would do a JB video about. however we often need them and always end up with single source devices which is terrible. Don't know if there are aother devices like 34063, hopefully a bit better 🙂 MOS would also be nice.

Thought I would throw these into the mix AC128/127.

Supporting Dave's judgement, there is one big way in which the 2N3904 is more "jellybean" than the 2N2222, or at least so it seems to this complete amateur. The 3904 is well suited for both switching and linear applications, whereas the 2222 is really only suitable as a switch. According to the datasheet gain specs, both have similar max hfe of 100-300, but the 3904 reaches that peak at 10 ma Ic, whereas the 2222 doesn't reach it until 150 ma. If you run the 2N2222 in a linear amplifier with 150 ma of idle current, you would hit the package dissipation limit of 600 mw at only 4 volts Vce. Maybe there is some odd low-voltage, high-current (but not too high!) application where it would be the optimal choice--but I have trouble thinking of one. Of course you can run the 2N2222 as a linear amplifier at a lower idle current, but you would probably be better off using the 2N3904, and getting a higher hfe (at least according to the datasheet). Worth mentioning (maybe?) is the 2N2219, which I gather is the same silicon as the 2N2222, but in a larger TO-39 case, capable of handling up to 3 watts with heat sinking. I have a 1970s vintage HP 20 MHz function generator that uses these as 50-ohm output drivers--so they can definitely handle linear applications. Not exactly "jellybean," though, since they cost about $3 each on digikey.

Thanks for the List 👍 It's helpful to have some Chicken Food trannies in your collection. Actually We used the FZT4 recently to switch mains voltages for a low power application

Bad souvenir about the 2222 (Plastic TO-92): Only having 2222's available for a project, i carefully built it with them to finally find it behaved bizzarely. Pretty low gain and significant leakage. After around 30 minutes of troubleshooting, i found the unimaginable: The BJT's Emitter and Collector leads were inverted !! In an JEDEC TO-92 device (base in center) ! I was so frustrated by such an amount of stupidity that i threw them in garbage without noting the brand, but i was 99% sure they were made out of Mandarium. Since then, i carefully check the datasheet before buying 2222's and yes, i prefer 3904's over them.

Never heard of 3904. When you say jellybean, I say BC547/8/..., BC557/8/..., or BC850, BC860 for SMD. From Japanese products, I mainly salvaged C945, which I assume is jellybean.

ZTX450 I recently replaced 85 of them on one board. Desoldering the old ones and cleaning the solder out the holes drove me nuts.

Love the jelly bean videos.

The 2N2222 and its various flavors as far as packaging goes is a decent "all around" NPN transistor. Often I find myself in the situation that a couple of hundred mA of current is needed, and here that does rather well. But the 3904 is also a really good contender for lower power applications. Though, I normally don't specify specific parts, but rather minimum specifications and package. Ie, a SOT23 (cbe) NPN 28 Vce, 150 mA 5 MHz part can be a 2N2222 or a 3904 or a slew of other transistors. If a specific aspect has to be within a range, then specify said range. Now obviously one can't do this for every single transistor in a design, would make for a crazy schematics... But specifying minimum requirements is generally quite nice when one inevitably comes back to the design many years later and need to know if that random component one has on hand is a good replacement or not. By listing the minimum requirements then one knows rather quickly if it works or not.

Used to be BC171/BC251, BD136/BD137, 2N3055. If it couldn't be done with one of these then it was radio frequency tier, which is just saying arcane magick. Or, if you wanna wind the dial even further back a bit: AC180/AC181, P401 etc...

BC182 is burnt into my mind out of factory

I remember you from the Australia Analogue Sign off video!

Whoa! What are these obscure parts you're trying to pass off as jellybean? Where are the ever popular OC44/45 and OC71s (or even the AF115 should you fancy a four legged beast)? You can even upgrade the OC71 to an OCP71 photodiode by centrifuging the opaque filler in the glass package away from the junction - two types from a single stock item - try that with your fancy pants suggestions! And they only cost a week or two's pocket money apiece. Nurse, nurse - my head's starting to hurt again!