3 Simple Ways to
Share What You Make

With Instructables you can share what you make with the world — and tap into an ever-growing community of creative experts.

PhotosPhotos

Share one or more photos of a project, recipe, or whatever you've made, quickly and easily.

Step by StepStep-By-Step

Share your step-by-step photos with text instructions of what you made so others can do it too!

VideoVideo

Share your how-to video. You'll need your embed code from a video site such as YouTube.

Are the TIP31 and TIP31B or C interchangable?

I  want to make a version of http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Music-Sync-Headphones/ but I have found three types of the TIB31.  A B and C.  Are they interchangable?

8 comments
sort by: active | newest | oldest
Jul 5, 2010. 12:32 PMlemonie says:
Jul 5, 2010. 2:45 PMadvancedMischief says:
I like http://octopart.com for finding datasheets.  It usually comes up with better results that Google and it's a lot cleaner that most datasheet specific sites.
Jul 6, 2010. 12:25 PMlemonie says:

I'll try to remember that.

L
Jul 5, 2010. 12:49 PMlemonie says:

It works for most things (silicon), but it's a sod when it doesn't....

L
Jul 5, 2010. 10:55 AMadvancedMischief says:
They are pin compatible. The A, B, C, designation indicate different collector-base and collector-emitter voltage ratings. The plain TIP31 version is rated to 40V and they go up from there, so you can choose the least expensive one. Wikipedia is useful if you want to know more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIP31
Jul 5, 2010. 2:41 PMadvancedMischief says:
Looking at the datasheet  I don't see any indication of the different parts behaving diffrently at the low end of the operating range, so if one version works any of the others should also work.  The only thing you'd have to worry about is the turn-on voltage which I don't see listed, but is usually around 0.6V or 0.7V.  If your just powering a few LED from 3.3V the TIP31 might be overkill.  In that case you can probably get away with using a smaller transistor like the 2N2222 or similar.

Pro

Get More Out of Instructables

Already have an Account?

close

All Steps Viewing
View all steps of an Instructable on the same page when you're a Pro Member.

Upgrade to Pro today!