$20 LCR ESR Transistor checker project

[N9XYP]

Just a quick question-

Has any thought been given to using a 328PB?

Ralph S Bacon has a video on a board he made that plugs directly into an Uno board (or anyplace the dip goes) and breaks out the extra GPIO pins,

[madires]

The additional I/O pins, timers and interfaces of the 328PB are nice for hardware options, but the flash memory of 32kB limits what can be added. With a graphics display and several options enabled the firmware is larger than 32kB.

[Chris02]

Finally I flashed my TC-1 (with 644P inside) with markus' lates FW (1.37). But the tester powers of after testing very quickly. So quickly that I'm not able to see the measurement result. How can I change it?



@all who have problems flashing 8051
If you aren't able to connect, short VCC and GND on PCB side to discharge capacitators and try again. Afterwards I was able to connect to the µC

[madires]

Have you programmed the control MCU U4 with https://github.com/atar-axis/tc1-u4? And have you used the settings listed in the Clones file?

[Chris02]

U4 was successfully programmed and settings like in "clone"File. Everything was done like you write it in the readme file. Only diffrence my TC1 has got a 644P and not a 324 inside.

[indman]

Finally I flashed my TC-1 (with 644P inside) with markus' lates FW (1.37). But the tester powers of after testing very quickly. So quickly that I'm not able to see the measurement result. How can I change it?

Have you read the madires tester guide carefully? Tester can operate in 2 modes - cyclic and manual. Hold the Test button start for more than 1 second and the manual mode will work. You can change these settings in config.h.

[Chris02]

Finally I flashed my TC-1 (with 644P inside) with markus' lates FW (1.37). But the tester powers of after testing very quickly. So quickly that I'm not able to see the measurement result. How can I change it?

Have you read the madires tester guide carefully? Tester can operate in 2 modes - cyclic and manual. Hold the Test button start for more than 1 second and the manual mode will work. You can change these settings in config.h.

No I didn't see this feature and still can find it in config.h  Can you give me a line where it is?
But tester also power offs after one measurement (one cycle). I guess it isn't my problem. Before I already tried to change cycle times but without any affect.

[madires]

If the tester powers off after the first run something else wrong. Any warning about a low battery? Are you sure that U4 is programmed with the alternative firmware?

[Andrey]

I want to ask dear Madires, how can I assign a port to connect the IR diode transmitter in the Hiland clone? I want to put with a transistor for constant use. Thank!

[madires]

The signal output has to be OC1B which is also PD4 in case of an ATmega324/644. Since the Hiland M644 uses PD4 for the low value test resistor of probe #2 you can't have a dedicated pin for signal output. One idea might be to add a switch to probe #2 for the IR driver transistor.

[Andrey]

I get it, thanks.
If it's not difficult, add two fonts, 8 thin and 12 thin, to your source.
Another question is how to swap Menu items? I do not like that first Shutdown, then Exit.
Can I change the order of the Menu items? How to do it? Thank!

[eti]

Hi chaps

Does anyone have the required knowledge to tell me how to re-flash a "fish8840tft" (photo attached) so that I may enabled the PWM & sq wave generator functions, plus the other extras that are on the mass produced clone (the one with the mint green backlit LCD and orange PCB)? I'm okay with compiling source and github/trees and all that stuff, if needed. I just bought this nice little unit - also the spelling of "Unknown" being "unKNOW" in this one, bugs me like crazy... also the spindly thin font used is VERY harsh on the eyes - can that be modified?

Thank you.

[madires]

If it's not difficult, add two fonts, 8 thin and 12 thin, to your source.
Another question is how to swap Menu items? I do not like that first Shutdown, then Exit.
Can I change the order of the Menu items? How to do it? Thank!

Thanks for the fonts! To swap items in the main menu simply swap the code blocks for menu items in function PresentMainMenu() in user.c. In your case please change:

Code: [Select]

  #ifdef SW_POWER_OFF
  MenuItem[Item] = (void *)PowerOff_str;     /* power off tester */
  MenuID[Item] = 20;
  Item++;
  #endif
  MenuItem[Item] = (void *)Exit_str;         /* exit menu */
  MenuID[Item] = 0;
  Item++;                                    /* add 1 for item #0 */
to

Code: [Select]

  MenuItem[Item] = (void *)Exit_str;         /* exit menu */
  MenuID[Item] = 0;
  Item++;
  #ifdef SW_POWER_OFF
  MenuItem[Item] = (void *)PowerOff_str;     /* power off tester */
  MenuID[Item] = 20;
  Item++;
  #endif


[madires]

Does anyone have the required knowledge to tell me how to re-flash a "fish8840tft" (photo attached) so that I may enabled the PWM & sq wave generator functions, plus the other extras that are on the mass produced clone (the one with the mint green backlit LCD and orange PCB)? I'm okay with compiling source and github/trees and all that stuff, if needed. I just bought this nice little unit - also the spelling of "Unknown" being "unKNOW" in this one, bugs me like crazy... also the spindly thin font used is VERY harsh on the eyes - can that be modified?

Add an ISP header and choose a firmware. You could use a precompiled 1.13k (mega328_fish8840) or compile a 1.37m (see Clones file for settings, Fish8840 is listed). And yes, different fonts are possible.

[indman]

Add an ISP header and choose a firmware. You could use a precompiled 1.13k (mega328_fish8840) or compile a 1.37m (see Clones file for settings, Fish8840 is listed). And yes, different fonts are possible.

I will slightly add the answer of the respected madires - you have one of the varieties of clone Fish8840 with TFT display.  . On my resource in the Fish-8840TFT folder there are ready English firmware, eti look carefully
https://yadi.sk/d/yW8xa5NJgUo5z/Fish-8840TFT

[eti]

Add an ISP header and choose a firmware. You could use a precompiled 1.13k (mega328_fish8840) or compile a 1.37m (see Clones file for settings, Fish8840 is listed). And yes, different fonts are possible.

I will slightly add the answer of the respected madires - you have one of the varieties of clone Fish8840 with TFT display.  . On my resource in the Fish-8840TFT folder there are ready English firmware, eti look carefully
https://yadi.sk/d/yW8xa5NJgUo5z/Fish-8840TFT

Thank you ever so much. Could you also provide the source files from which this was compiled, since it's not in the ZIP, thanks.

[Andrey]

* .Zip only files that are modified for your clone. All source codes - https://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/Software/

[eti]

* .Zip only files that are modified for your clone. All source codes - https://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/Software/

Thanks so much for that, appreciate it a lot

[Altair8800]

Hi All,

I'm looking to purchase one of these LCR Component Transistor+ testers.  Hopefully under $30 USD.  Any suggestions? 

I'm just a beginning Electronics hobbyist. 

Is there any list or database that kind of compare all these different versions (TC1, TC4, TC7, ESR02, 574D, other?)?  Like what their features/specifications are.  I assume not all are created equal (like some do not do Inductance or are older versions).

Thanks,


PS:  I like what this Aussie guy did to modify his component tester to quickly use different types of probes.


PS2:  Please forgive me for not reading all 239 pages of this 7 year old continuous updated thread.     

[madires]

Please see https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg2295804/#msg2295804 for indman's overview of clones.

[indman]

Here I made a more recent version of the table 
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg2456181/#msg2456181

[Altair8800]

Thanks indman for the time to make the list and madires for the mention.   

[eti]

So here's an odd thing or two: I removed the battery from my Fish8840TFT, connected my USBASP to the 6-pin header, and immediately the red USBASP LED extinguished, and the Fish8840TFT wouldn't turn on. After a brief search of this thread, I surmised that the zener (legend marked as "3v3") which is marked "Z14" on its body, had been blown by the transients inflicted by the USBASP :-/ - so I lifted the top (middle) leg off the board, et voila - she sprang back to life! ( the post mentioning this issue is here ---> https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg1610944/?topicseen#msg1610944

Okay, so I flashed the Fish8840TFT firmware kindly supplied by indman ---> https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg2776962/#msg2776962 and a very odd thing is happening (pic attached); the upper 2 or 3 lines of the TFT have what I can only compare to "TV snow" on them, AND also the tester says "Bat 16v" - and that's only when it's connected to the 9v battery - when I am powering it via the header, from the USBASP, it reports as normal. Odd...

Ideas?

[indman]

eti look https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg1532846/#msg1532846
In the Karl-Heinz distribution kit there is no support of a clone of Fish8840TFT. In order that its firmware worked it is necessary to make considerable changes in the config.h file.
In order to correctly measure the battery voltage, you need to configure the control parameters in makefile
# Voltage divider for battery voltage measurement  10k / 3.3k = 133/33
CFLAGS  = -DBAT_NUMERATOR=133
CFLAGS  = -DBAT_DENOMINATOR=33

[ansic]

I purchased a T4 which arrived broken.  There was no backlight at first, there was a "Testing.." text when the button was held down.  Nothing would happen past that.  If the button was released the tester shut down instantly.  Seemingly randomly the tester would function for a couple seconds.

After flashing the chip, both the M and K version, with various configurations, sometimes it worked for a while, a full calibration went through but after the next boot, nothing would show up on the display.  It *did* identify components correctly a few times, both resistors and capacitors.

The tester is totaled now.  After applying 5V to the LM7805 regulator output, 1.5A of current was rushing through a SOT23 device and thus burning my finger. 

Does anyone know what the three SOT23 devices close to the 9V input are?  The silkscreen says 9014 and 9015, the print on the device is J6 and M6.