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Measuring transistor Hfe

Started by 2tonewarrior, August 01, 2012, 11:51:46 PM

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2tonewarrior

Another quick transistor question  ;D

Is it possible to test the Hfe of a transistor with a multimeter WITHOUT a transistor test socket? Or maybe with some easy circuit?

Thanks in advance

mgwhit

R.G. Keen's article Picking transistors for FF Clones has a good circuit for measuring PNP Germanium transistors.  It can easily be adapted for NPNs.

joegagan

the multimeters from harbor freight have hfe testing and trans sockets. they are under 10 bucks, and they seem to give reasonably good readings.

^^^ above was for Si. Ge trans, see the RG article linked above.

2tonewarrior

Thanks for the info, Mr. Keen is always present to solve the doubts   :)

I should have bought a good cheap MM when I started with electronics but I bought a bad, cheap MM in a local store. For now I want to make the most out of mine, but I´ll keep the advice for the future.

Bret608

My Harbor Freight DMM does seem to give reasonable readings on silicon transistors. I've only tried a couple of germaniums with it, but I can't seem to get a reading.

icecycle66

My meter counts backwards to some apperantly unrelated number when I try to measure Hfe.

What's up with that?