On 26/10/2016 12:35, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 26/10/16 09:28, Martin Brown wrote:
On 25/10/2016 20:22, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 25/10/16 18:33, wrote:
On Tuesday, 25 October 2016 18:14:18 UTC+1, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
On 25/10/16 17:15, Michael Chare wrote:
Would an elecrical oscillator such as the small ones shown in this
picture mind which way round they are installed?

http://tinyurl.com/jhfjnhd

If it's a quartz crystal, no.

If it's a whole circuit to make an oscillator, yes of course, it will
have a +ve and -ve, and generally an output too.

that photo is not of 'oscillators' of course. It's of crystals. They
are
*part* of an oscillator.

2 terminal oscillators are certainly possible. But they're just
crystals.

I've never seen a crystal oscillate on its own.

Neither have I. Increasingly though oscillator modules are sold rather
than bare crystals but they tend to have 4 or even 6 connections.

The canonical two terminal oscillator is the old bimetallic strip winker
for car indicators of old where the current flow heats the strip up and
breaks the circuit then cools and remakes. Likewise for a magnetic based
buzzers and traditional solenoid ding-dong doorbells.

All of those have outputs that are not electrical though. Light or sound.

Rubbish. Their output is a current flow that switches on and off
alternately. What you do with externally is immaterial.

A simple load resistor would convert the changing current into a voltage
but the most common uses were for visual or acoustic indicators.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown