Help identify this transistor

[Red Squirrel]

Bought a bag of transistors off Amazon to play with but there was no datasheet or anything.  Only thing it says on it is TU 13001.  I can't for the life of me figure out what is base emitter and collector and searching that number brings up lot of irrelevant results and even contradicting datasheets. I may have possibly blew a couple trying to figure it out.    Any help would be appreciated.  I got it working by fluke once and I should have wrote down the results.

[wraper]

Likely some knockoff of MJE13001.

[VK5RC]

Is this helpful?
 

[Red Squirrel]

My multi meter does not have diode mode.. though guess I could probably do the same using a LED and 5 volts? Is that basically what the multimeter is doing?  I have to look at getting a better multimeter though, but been spending lot of money latetly on this new hobby. 

So I found a MJE13001 datasheet says  1: emiter, 2: colector, 3: base does that sound right?

So emitter goes to ground, collector goes to load, which is connected to positive of a higher voltage/amperage (if desired) source, and base is put to ~5v to turn on and off, correct?

[Red Squirrel]

Ok I got it!  It was indeed E C B (with flat part facing me).  The load (small DC motor on 12v) I was testing with was just too much for the little transistor to handle so I thought it was not working.

[VK5RC]

Well done, if you solve it yourself you learn so much more. I have learnt more from my mistakes than my successes!

[dannyf]

TU 13001

MJE13001 - high voltage switching type.

[amyk]

Some 13001 are BCE pinout and others are ECB, beware.

So emitter goes to ground, collector goes to load, which is connected to positive of a higher voltage/amperage (if desired) source, and base is put to ~5v to turn on and off, correct?

Mostly; in the common-emitter configuration, you will need to limit the current into the base with e.g. a resistor, otherwise remember that the B-E junction acts like a diode (exponential I-V curve) and with a high-enough voltage, will pass as much current as it can until it burns itself out. In a switching application you only need enough base current to saturate the transistor.

I suggest you read a bit more on BJT fundamentals.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Cheap but fantastic tool: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Small-12864-LCD-Transistor-Tester-Capacitance-ESR-Meter-Diode-Triode-MOS-LCR-NPN-/251518131978?_trksid=p2054897.l4275
Not super acurate, but well worth the price.