About TIP120 and IRF510

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Hello, I did not know electronic much, so I reading quite a long of books before starting using Arduino....

As I reading different books about Arduino, Something really bored me...

  1. I found that IRF510 and TIP120 both can drive a DC motor, but what is the difference of them ?
    (I knew that IRF510 is MOSFET abut TIP120 contain darlington transistor.)

  2. I know how to apply ohms law and calculate the resistors using is LED, however, I read some books and found that some circuit is using 220 ohms instead of 150 ohms (150 ohms should be the calculated value) , is it a great problem for it ? I found that even i use 330 Ohm the circuit seems still working.

  3. Similar to the above questions, some book said the circuit should using 4K7 pot, but I found that using 5K pot still working, is there any rules of using resistors/ pot ?

Many thx.

2

The main difference you will notice will be the voltage drop across the two devices - the MOSFET's drop will be much lower if you drive it fully on (saturated), but be aware that not all MOSFETs will saturate with 5V logic levels, meaning greater losses

3

Thanks, does it means that if both for drive a DC motor, TIP120 will be preferable ?

4

No, go for the MOSFET, but make sure you get a logic-level variant.

5

Many Thx.