Hi Nigel, thanks for the reply they are not from the robot kit you metioned they are in a controller unit that controls a set of under car LED lighting
there are 4 tubes of LED's and they light up woth several sequences flashing, moving dot, etc you get the gist.
eack bank of 6 LED's lights one after the other, expect they are 6 x 2 volt hense the 12v feed.
i tried Rs components and they don't stock them but they sugested i use Motorola 2N5401 as a replacement but they dont work.
when i tried them the LEDS dont go out they are also dimly lit, i removed one of them and replaced it with the only working S8050 that i had left and the lights responded so i know that there is no other damage to the board.
you are saying NPN and i'm sure that RS said they were PNP!!!!
do you still think the ones you offered will still work for my application?
thanks for the reply
Simon