possibly my dumbest question ever....

[pinkjimiphoton]

ok. now i got it. i'm looking at the printed side as being the front.

absolutely opposite pinout according to the datasheets. when ya say the flat part, i think the part where the printing is. in the case of the TO92, the flat part IS where the printing is. with the TO220 the "flat part" is also where the printing is, hence the confusion.

looking at the flat part with the printing on it, the TO92, would be output, ground, input (in the pic its shown from the bottom)

looking at the flat part with the printing on it, the TO220 is NOT shown from the back, where it has GRND on it in the pic, just to the right, you see the little shelf on the front of the thing where the writing is. so its not from the back as you may think.. the ground plane runs the whole back. on that one (the one i have) the pins are input, ground and output  so it is opposite and will have to be flipped 180 degrees for it to work from the TO92 specc'd in the build doc.

this sure is confusing... sometimes looking stuff up makes it harder
when i get a chance to get down there in a bit i'll try and fire it up and see what's what on the breadboard,
but from what i'm seeing it does have opposite pinouts between the particular one/brand/style i have and the other kind.

will report back.

[Scruffie]

Ahhh, right, yes, when I said flat part, I meant physically, the side that is flat and not a semi-circle or raised in any way, it seemed like the best way to differentiate and I don't know why saying the printed side which would have made this all a lot easier didn't come to me  the printed side IS opposite for them.

Well i'm glad we got that sorted out, the fact that it got us on to the second page suggests this certainly was not your 'dumbest question ever' 

[pinkjimiphoton]

hahahah!!! no worries bro, i'm just glad we got it sussed!!!
NOW that i am SURE about this i can go hit the dungeon and get my build on!!! yah!

thanks everyone!!! this was definitely a learning experience