Elenco Electronics 202 - Manual (Page 12)

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The three-spring socket (?Q) just has three springs, and won’t do
anything by itself. It is not used in any of the experiments. It was
included to make it easy to connect other electronic components to
your Snap Kits
TM . It should only be used by advanced users who
are creating their own circuits.
There are many different types of transistors such as switching,
high gain, high frequency, high power, field-effect, and others. All
of these come with different specifications. Other common
components that have three connection points include adjustable
resistors, voltage regulator IC’s, SCR’s, some amplifier IC’s, some
types of inductors and filters, bi-color LED’s, and others.
The three-spring socket (?Q) makes it easy to connect your own
transistors (and other parts) to circuits by connecting them
between the springs:
Any component with three wires coming from it (called leads) can
be connected with the three-spring socket (?Q), assuming the
leads are long enough. Usually you will connect different types of
transistors, but other components with 3 leads can also be used.
You can find electronic components like this at Radio Shack.
You can design your own circuits or substitute new parts into the
projects in the manuals. Be sure to connect your parts correctly or
you may damage them. Never exceed the voltage ratings of any
parts. RADIO SHACK IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY PARTS
DAMAGED BY IMPROPER CIRCUIT DESIGN OR WIRING.
Never connect to external voltages. The three-spring socket is
intended for advanced users only.
About the THREE-SPRING SOCKET (?Q)
NPN Transistor PNP Transistor
Collector
Base
Emitter
Emitter
Base
Collector