I'm losing my mind!!! Are these diode configurations all the same or not...argh!

[chumbox]

Hey

I have been staring at these three pics for probably a solid fortnight and for the life of me cannot work out if they are all different versions of paralell diodes or whether some are parallel / serial.  Somebody please put me out of my misery.  I really tried to work it out before posting.

Thanks in advance!

[Keppy]

The second and third diagrams are the same. If you ignore the look of the "wires," you'll see that every diode is connected to exactly the same other diodes in both diagrams.

The first one does not have the same connections, but is functionally the same as the other two.

- Current flows when there is a voltage difference between two points, so in all of these diagrams current flows only when there's a voltage difference between the two outside wires. In fact, it only flows when the voltage difference is greater than the forward voltage drops of three diodes combined.

- No current can get from one side to the other without passing through three diodes in one direction. Current will only flow one direction at a time according to the voltage difference between the two wires, so when the diodes oriented one way conduct, the ones oriented the opposite way cannot.

Hope this helps. It's late, and my language skills are not at their best right now.

[chumbox]

It might be late but your explanation is magic sir.

I can understand now that even though they all appear different the current can really only run one way through three diodes at any one time or the other way through three at any one time, so basically the outcome will be the same regardless.

Thanks again!