Feliciano posted a link to a list just four posts earlier.
Feliciano posted a link to a list just four posts earlier.Yes, but I'm not sure how current this list is.
There are TC1 and T7 with APT32F172K8T6 in them, which are not listed there.
It's difficult to say what you're actually getting.
Feliciano posted a link to a list just four posts earlier.Yes, but I'm not sure how current this list is.
There are TC1 and T7 with APT32F172K8T6 in them, which are not listed there.
It's difficult to say what you're actually getting.
Sorry, but I'm personally already tired of sorting out the varieties of Chinese shit that they have been putting on the market lately.
Maybe someone else can do it better than me.
If you want to get a real product, then the best option is to assemble the tester with your own hands from the very beginning according to the original author's project, using high-quality components.
I like DIP because of the ease of swapping out the chip. What would be the advantage of an ATmega324 over ATmega328 to pay a premium for a tester based on it?
Feliciano posted a link to a list just four posts earlier.
Stated another way: “You get what you pay for.”
Unfortunately all of the currently available cheap LCR-style Transistor Testers which are housed inside cream-colored plastic cases are garbage. Please do not buy any of them.
Starting a bit over a year ago the Chinese manufacturers of these LCR-style Transistor Testers abandoned the (original design) Atmel ATmega324 MCU chip in favor of the (much cheaper) APT32F172K8T6 or LGT8F328P MCU chips. However these substitute MCU chips cannot run any of the (excellent quality) open-source Transistor Tester firmware. Unfortunately the non-upgradable firmware which comes in these “cheap” LCR-style units barely works at all.
These alternate MCU chips are made by smaller Chinese semiconductor manufacturers. They cost only about $0.25 USD each. In contrast a genuine Atmel/Microchip ATmega324 MCU now sells for $5-9 USD each as a bare IC chip. Therefore it is impossible for anyone to sell an LCR-type Transistor Tester containing the Atmel ATmega324 MCU for <$25 USD.
I did succeed at purchasing a model LCR-TC2 “V2.3E” Transistor Tester recently which contains the proper (original design) Atmel ATmega324 MCU but it cost me nearly $40 USD. Although more expensive, this unit fully supports the open-source Transistor Tester firmware, both k- and m- variants. This makes it well worth the extra cost. More details may be found in the following posts:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg4653559/#msg4653559
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg4687568/#msg4687568
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/lcr-t7-tester-reliable/msg4603333/#msg4603333
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/lcr-t7-tester-reliable/msg4606021/#msg4606021
- We already had a short discussion about DurandA approach. You can go back to the posts of July 23, 2022 of this thread
- Unless the vendor shows an internal photo (and even in that case we cannot be 100% certain), you cannot know for sure what you're going to get untill you have it in your hands. For instance, last July I bought one T1 and one T7 from Amazon, for $20+ each, from different sellers. One was the real ATmega, the other was a 32pin clone
…I purchased a T7-Tester that is locally branded by german distributor Joy-It. I attached some pictures - as it seems, this still is "the real deal" on the inside?
This one was purchased from reichelt.de
I can thoroughly recommend one of these units with the case. I've had mine now for a number of years and is the same board as this uses, there are other slight variations of the eBay for sale, but I can't vouch for those, but this one has given my very good service and is certainly reasonably accurate, checking it against bigger 4 lead devices.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155087140184
Hello folks,
I just found out about this thread on eevblog forums about Markus' and Karl-Heinz' Testers recently.
After reading about the latest batches of LCR-TC1/TC2 containing counterfeit or clone MCUs, I tried not to head down the "Aliexpress Alley" - so I purchased a T7-Tester that is locally branded by german distributor Joy-It. I attached some pictures - as it seems, this still is "the real deal" on the inside?
This one was purchased from reichelt.de
I can thoroughly recommend one of these units with the case. I've had mine now for a number of years and is the same board as this uses, there are other slight variations of the eBay for sale, but I can't vouch for those, but this one has given my very good service and is certainly reasonably accurate, checking it against bigger 4 lead devices.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155087140184There is one major issue with these Transistor Testers which have their MCU in a 32-pin TQFP package (8 pins on each of the 4 sides of the package).
These days there are 3 totally different 32-pin TQFP package MCU chips which may appear in Transistor Testers:
Atmel ATmega328P — this is the MCU specified by the original OSHW Transistor Tester project. However its price has increased from $3 USD to $9-10 USD, so the low-cost Chinese vendors stopped using it.
Logic Green LGT8F328P — This is a Chinese MCU which costs <$1 USD. It is said to be “somewhat” similar to the original Atmel AT328P. But unfortunately several of its pins have different functionality. Therefore a Transistor Tester containing LGT8F328P cannot easily have its MCU replaced by the Atmel ATmega328P. Also the LGT8F328P has substantially different internal features, which means existing OSHW firmware won’t work without considerable modification.
Aptchip APT32F172K8T6. — Another Chinese MCU which costs <$1 USD. It has nothing at all in common with the original Atmel ATmega328P. The pinout is totally different. Also the internal MCU architecture is totally different.
Warning: Some of these $1 USD Chinese MCU chips have been deliberately mislabeled as “Atmel ATmega328P.”
More discussions about this are found here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg4613737/?topicseen#msg4613737
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg4610314/?topicseen#msg4610314
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg4600771/#msg4600771
I was not aware of this, however, if anything other than a capacitor or resistor failed, wouldn't it be better to replace the whole unit seeing as it is such a low cost unit, rather than run the gauntlet of facing a possible problem with fake chips?
I like DIP because of the ease of swapping out the chip. What would be the advantage of an ATmega324 over ATmega328 to pay a premium for a tester based on it?1) Some of us want a Transistor Tester which comes in an attractive “toolbox-friendly” finished plastic case with a self-contained USB rechargeable battery, rather than an unenclosed PC board with a loose 9V battery dangling by its cable.
2) High-quality LCR-style units contain the ATmega324 MCU in a 44-pin TQFP package. In contrast, “cheap” LCR-style units have 32-pin MCU chips which probably aren’t the Atmel ATmega328P. However there aren’t yet any alternative “cheap” MCU chips which come in 44-pin TQFP packages. Therefore if a Transistor Tester contains a 44-pin TQFP MCU chip this indicates the MCU is likely to be an authentic Atmel ATmega324, rather than some dodgy $0.25 USD MCU with unknown architecture running poorly designed Chinese firmware which cannot be upgraded.
3) Transistor Testers with ATmega324 can be upgraded to ATmega644 to get twice as much flash (64k vs. 32k). This enables activating all of the advanced features offered by some versions of the open-source Transistor Tester software. The ATmega324 and ATmega644 have the same physical dimensions and pinout.
I like DIP because of the ease of swapping out the chip. What would be the advantage of an ATmega324 over ATmega328 to pay a premium for a tester based on it?
None of this is what I was asking. Looking to build, not buy. Need info.