Having decided recently that I wanted to do electronics more at home, I decided to order in some parts that I had been using at school. When the arrived I looked at the data sheets to see the voltage and current requirements for the IC's and other components etc. I keep seeing the words Forward Current, Forward Voltage and Reverse Voltage. Can anyone explain to me what each of these terms means?
Also with current, I understand that is an extremely bad idea to pass too high a current through a component. For example when driving an LED with an output from an IC, you use a resistor in series with the LED. I have always been told its a "protective resistor", but what are you actually protecting? An LED has very low resistance and thus will draw a high current. So are you protecting the IC?
Finally, with current. I understand that you draw current? Does this means that a component will circuit will only draw the current it needs? For example if you have a 500ma power supply, would a circuit only draw 300ma from it?
Its a really fundamental bit of knowledge, and I feel kind of stupid for asking. But I guess I have never really needed to know about this kind of circuit design/construction.
Thanks for all the help,
Sam
Also with current, I understand that is an extremely bad idea to pass too high a current through a component. For example when driving an LED with an output from an IC, you use a resistor in series with the LED. I have always been told its a "protective resistor", but what are you actually protecting? An LED has very low resistance and thus will draw a high current. So are you protecting the IC?
Finally, with current. I understand that you draw current? Does this means that a component will circuit will only draw the current it needs? For example if you have a 500ma power supply, would a circuit only draw 300ma from it?
Its a really fundamental bit of knowledge, and I feel kind of stupid for asking. But I guess I have never really needed to know about this kind of circuit design/construction.
Thanks for all the help,
Sam