madbeanpedals::forum

Projects => Tech Help - Projects Page => Topic started by: zenless on May 19, 2014, 01:22:44 AM

Title: Inexpensive transistor tester?
Post by: zenless on May 19, 2014, 01:22:44 AM
What's a good option for transistor tester? Are these things too good to be true? Seems that you can test just about any component?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Transistor-Tester-Capacitor-ESR-Inductance-Resistor-Meter-NPN-PNP-Mosfet-/251210970850?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a7d5736e2 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Transistor-Tester-Capacitor-ESR-Inductance-Resistor-Meter-NPN-PNP-Mosfet-/251210970850?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a7d5736e2)
Title: Re: Inexpensive transistor tester?
Post by: upthepunxxx on May 19, 2014, 03:06:45 AM
Man that would great if it's legit. Let us know if you ends up working out. I would love I have something like that.
Title: Re: Inexpensive transistor tester?
Post by: blearyeyes on May 19, 2014, 04:39:44 AM
I picked up a version of this..I think it's pretty much the same thing.. I'm not sure if it gives you what you need to accurately measure Hfe in transistors as I don't know if it takes into account leakage. Mine tells you what you hooked up to it, what the forward voltage is and the Hfe.. pretty cool. Tonight I was using my meter getting bogus readings off of some caps and switched to using this thing and it read them perfectly... Down side it is mostly in CHINESE on screen...except for the readouts. You are really on your own. YMMV. I like mine but still am not sure of it's real value.
Title: Re: Inexpensive transistor tester?
Post by: Blues Healer on May 19, 2014, 04:38:48 PM
the CHEAPEST method would probably be R.G. Keen's:
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/fuzzface/fffram.htm (http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/fuzzface/fffram.htm)
Title: Re: Inexpensive transistor tester?
Post by: upthepunxxx on May 19, 2014, 06:17:07 PM
Quote from: Blues Healer on May 19, 2014, 04:38:48 PM
the CHEAPEST method would probably be R.G. Keen's:
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/fuzzface/fffram.htm (http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/fuzzface/fffram.htm)

Wait, I'm suppose to read words?!!!
Title: Re: Inexpensive transistor tester?
Post by: blearyeyes on May 20, 2014, 07:26:44 AM
Heck no!

Second picture down on the left!

Title: Re: Inexpensive transistor tester?
Post by: gjcamann on May 20, 2014, 12:33:03 PM
I've been wanting one of these for a while. I think these are all based on an open source project (hardware and software) with an Atmel microcontroller - that's why there's so many people selling about the same thing.
http://www.mikrocontroller.net/attachment/143988/TTester_096k.pdf (http://www.mikrocontroller.net/attachment/143988/TTester_096k.pdf)
http://www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/AVR-Transistortester (http://www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/AVR-Transistortester)

I'm temped to build one myself, but for $20...

Anyone else have one of these? How well do they work?
Title: Re: Inexpensive transistor tester?
Post by: Blues Healer on May 20, 2014, 04:01:50 PM
I actually tried to do the smallbear/ R.G. Keen project several years ago, and wasn't really successful, so I ended up getting a Peak tester, since I had a LOT of trannies.

If someone was ambitious enough, I'd suggest looking at analogman's tester that he uses ... I think it's probably based on Keen's, with an added LED readout, such as sold by circuit specialists.