f4cepl4nt

Ok, i built this infrared emittor using three 1.6v 50mA 100mW infrared leds, with a 100ohm resistor, and a 9v battery all in series. I did all the math and i bought the parts, soldered them and glued down the connections so that they dont move aroudn a whole lot, and it works great. Each led (when on) is completely clear unless i look at them from the front, in which case i see a dim red glow. On web camera, these lights appear to be bright purple when turned on. Now, for the receiver. I bought an OP550A phototransistor, and for some reason it doesnt conduct when i shine the infrareds near it, and it still doesnt work even when ive got the leds touching the phototranssitor. I'm sure this has something to do with the way I've hooked the phototransistor up, but heres a simple schematic for the heck of it: *note* the phototransistor is the OP550A in case you didnt read that above

Ok, I've learnt how to read electronic schematics in electron-flow style, and now that I've finally learnt it pretty decently I figure out that there's a whole different style? Conventional flow eh? Hmph. It makes absolutely no sense to me. How can people stick with that ancient method of doing it? Well, seeing as everyone seems to love conventional style, can anyone give me some pointers / links to good sites that explain conventional style in depth? And I mean REALLY explain it, not just say "Oh yeah, and conventional style is just the opposite basically". Another good thing (actually even better) would be how to convert conventional style schematics to electron flow style ;D Oh yeah, and while I'm asking about schematics...in complicated schematics, not just parallel and/or series ones, how exactly do you know where the electricity goes? One of my major questions is, in a complicated schematic, if one wire connects to another to make two different paths for electrons, do they HAVE to go through the second one? Or can they just sort of choose to only go one route. I know I ask pretty stupid questions, but that's why I'm here...to learn :). I need some serious tips or links, cause when I see these *supposedly* simple ones I'm tripping out going "Huh???". Thanks guys, don't know what I'd do without you.

Ok heres my idea, and it's probably been thought up 10000000s of times but I'm just wondering if this would work and if anyone has any ideas on how to make this: A radio frequency transmitter (probably either 27 or 49 mhz

http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jfuller/test2/diodesB.htm on that page, if you scroll down there is a picture of a grey box with little red lines on it. below that there is a tiny little schematic. I'm having a LOT of trouble getting all this through my brain..I'm a complete newbie to electronics (other than 4 months of it in grade 9 science), and for some reason I'm having a lot of trouble understanding the way electrons move in a circuit. You would think that they move from negative to positive right? So then how does that circuit work that i linked to you? Because the way I see it, the resistor isnt protecting the LED from anything because the electrons get to it after they get to the LED. I don't know, maybe im just completely stupid. But it just seems to make sense to me that that would be true. And another question, on some circuits they have one wire leading to something called +9V then no other wire...where do you connect the -ve end of the battery to? Sorry to bullet you guys with stupid questions but as i said im a complete newb