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Switching Negative Voltage — Parallax Forums

Switching Negative Voltage

MolitorMolitor Posts: 2
edited 2005-08-14 17:16 in General Discussion
This may come across as a silly question but is there any difference switching negative voltage with a transistor? I'm familiar with TTL level stuff so may end up building it just to see if it works but here goes...

Basically I need to emulate a peice of hardware that currently bit bangs on a serial port using -12v DC to activate relays. (I have to use -12v or I'd just switch it all over.) My plan is to just use ULN2003AN (or I could use 7 2N4401 instead) to switch the -12V (which I was planning to use a TC7662A to produce from a 12v DC source [noparse][[/noparse]which also powers the stamp via a MIC2950]).

The little I've read (and understood) about negative voltage I see some references to NP/PN boundries and fusing that leads me to believe I might just roast the transistor(s) by doing this. Any sudgestions?

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Comments

  • MolitorMolitor Posts: 2
    edited 2005-08-14 17:16
    So I get to reply to myself. I was able to google around a bit more and realized that I need a PNP transistor to switch negative voltage (So something like a 2N3906) but can I apply positive (TTL level 5V form a stamp pin) to the base of the 2N3906 and switch negative 12V?
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