Useful cheap small tester...

[Nick]

Reports from folk I know say this is a useful bit of kit. Personally, I use the Peak Electronics ones, but this will do for many....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151021743457 (this is delux, back-lit, version...)

[Yorkie]

What an excellent bit of kit Nick and at such as keen price!

It does blow my little homebrew ESR meter based on the VE7IT design clean out of the water as it would cost as much to make as does this ready-built device with a backlit digital display! And whereas an ESR meter is a 'one trick pony', the one that you mention also tests transistors (including P and N channel MOSFETS) and measures capacitance, inductance and resistance too. It has some similarities in layout to the capacitance meter kit that Alan Beckett and I built (albeit that kit has 7-seg LED displays).

http://proto-pic.co.uk/capacitance-meter-diy-kit/

I've attached a couple of pics, though they're also elsewhere in the hombrew section.

They come unboxed and I imagine that many users will keep them that way, but Alan and I put the meter in a little box with a front panel. The one at the link you gave would seem to lend itself to that arrangement. I think I'd be inclined to fit 'header pins' in the test sockets and fit test leads with croc clips as Alan and I did with the cap meter, rather than just poke the wire ends of components into the sockets.

Even though I'm well set up three times over for all the facilities it offers I'm very tempted and I'm dithering on clicking on 'But it Now'!! I have had a Peak DCA50 meter for many years. It claims to test MOSFETs as well as bipolar transistors and diodes, but whenever I've tried to test Mosfets - even brand new ones, it only ever says that they're diodes. It works well enough with bipolar transistors and is useful to sort out the higher gain ones in a batch.

[Nick]

I have had a Peak DCA50 meter for many years. It claims to test MOSFETs as well as bipolar transistors and diodes, but whenever I've tried to test Mosfets - even brand new ones, it only ever says that they're diodes. It works well enough with bipolar trasnstors and is useful to sort out the higher gain ones in a batch.

The DCA50 was replaced a while back by the DCA55 - Peak Electronics have excellent customer service - you can send your current bit of their kit back to them for an upgrade & re-calibration for a very reasonable fee - give them a call - very helpful - they'll tell you your options... fast turnaround - typically my stuff was back within the week, and in one case, they simply sent me a new unit.

I've sent my PE devices back a couple of times over the years to have their software update, probes changed to better ones or to be recalibrated - currently have a DCA55 and an LCR40 - excellent devices in continual use.

[Yorkie]

Thanks for the info re the Peak upgrade Nick.

Now look what you've made me do - I've succumbed and ordered on of those backlit e-bay multi-function jobbies! I am to test gear what my daughters-in-law are to handbags and shoes - you just can't have too much of a good thing, but at least my indulgances aren't extravagent. Besides which, they are of course essential, or so I tell myself.

Oh well, boys will be boys!

I'll post an update in due course.

[Yorkie]

The little meter arrived yesterday - 15 days after I ordered it - not bad from Hong Kong.

Great little gizmo that works a treat, albeit it comes with no instructions, so I downloaded the pics from the e-bay site.

No need for an on/off switch - you just connect the cap/resistor/inductor, press the test button and read the display. Disconnect the component under test and the meter has auto shut-off.

I'll build it into a little box with short test leads as I did with the kit I mentioned above - I don't like the 'bare bones' approach, or shoving component wire ends into the little header.

When I've done it I'll post a pic.

Thanks once more for tipping us off about it Nick!

[camallison]

What sort of physical dimensions has it, David? I might just purchase one myself - as you say, can't have too much test equipment can we

Colin

[tiv48]

i have 3 peak meters an lcr an ers and a a dca. they seem expensive but i would not be without them. when i damaged one of the clip probes they sent me a pair free of charge .thats what i call service.
rob t

[Joe]

I'm tempted as I've been a couple of hours testing a bag of resistors. They are the horrible four-band ones when you can't tell which colour is which. I picked one up which I read as 22kΩ but it was, in fact, 33Ω. I can certainly think of more pleasurable ways of damaging my eye-sight.

- Joe

[AlanBeckett]

I'll build it into a little box with ......

Perhaps you could make a batch while you're at it

Alan

[Yorkie]

What sort of physical dimensions has it, David? I might just purchase one myself - as you say, can't have too much test equipment can we

Colin

The main PCB is 8.5 cms x 5.5cms Colin. The two line display, which plugs into the main PCB is 7cms long x 2.5 cms tall. When you attach a component and press the 'Test' button, it momentarily says 'Batt Test OK, and give the battery voltage, then reads out the measurement of whatever component is attached. After several sseconds, it switches itself off. There are three terminals (five actually - T1 and T3 have a pair, and T2 just has one). This enables components to be tested in series if desired, and I forgot to mention that the tester also tests transistors, though the gain figure in the display is termed 'B' (Beta) rather than the more usual 'HFE'. I've attached a pic of the readout of a 50-yr old germanium transistor under test.

If no component is attached or if it's faulty, the meter states: 'No, unknown, or damaged part attached'.

It could be used as it is, but it's fiddly to plug in the wires of components to the little sockets, and some wires are too thick, so as I said, really, the meter needs to be boxed up and to have three short test leads attached. There's no facility to zero the capacitance, so the test leads need to be short or if measuring small values of capacitance there will be a few pFs in the test leads, but that's really no big deal. I think most people will probably find the inductance test as useful as anything, because many of us will have multimeters that include HFE for transistors, and a cap test.

Just a neat little project really, at a bargain basement price.

I've had a Peak transistor tester for some years, and they're an excellent firm to deal with, and British too, but frankly, with the passage of time, they've become a tad pricy. I know there are those that like to buy expensive test gear and bandy names like Fluke around, but I dare say that most stuff nowadays (including Fluke no doubt), emanates from the orient. This PTH PCB on this meter is a work of art, so it may be cheap, but it's far from being 'cheap tat'.