$20 LCR ESR Transistor checker project

[rddube]

Oh and I forgot, another question.

When you program the Yellow transistor tester, does it have to be powered by the 9V battery or it gets its power from the ISP connection?

Many thanks!

[rddube]

Well, what do you know, I finally found my problem and thought I should share it with others in case you come across the same problem.

Using the Arduino Uno as an AVRISP loader, you connect all pins of the ISP on the Uno to the ISP of the Yellow Transistor Tester, except for Reset that you plug from the ISP of the Transistor Tester to pin (hole) #10 of the digital side of the Uno, and voilà it works just fine!

Thanks again to all that have read me and best regards,

Raymond

[amirtebyan]

Hi
I want to add voltmeter with auto detection of positive and negative voltages (-30 ~ +30 or -50 ~ +50)
I found this circuit useful

for this circuit :
 Vadc = (Vmeasured + 15)/6, which means that Vadc goes from 0 to 5 V as Vmeasured goes from -15 to +15 V, which is what we want.

for more detail : http://www.cq.cx/interface.pl#6

What is your ideas about using this circuit (connecting Vext in tester to Vmeasured and using buffer circuit in Vext line for protection)?

[Overtuner]

Hi
I want to add voltmeter //

a simple voltage measurement is already implemented.
see section 2.2.3 (Measurement of zener voltage above 4 Volt) in Karl-Heinz Kuebbeler's reference manual

//with auto detection of positive and negative voltages (-30 ~ +30 or -50 ~ +50)

well - for negative and /or AC measurement there's a need for more circuitry.
If there's reallly a need for this, I'd look at some schematics of well known and tested "classic" multimeters and "steal" some ideas 

[amirtebyan]

Hi
I want to add voltmeter //

a simple voltage measurement is already implemented.
see section 2.2.3 (Measurement of zener voltage above 4 Volt) in Karl-Heinz Kuebbeler's reference manual

thank you for your response.

Yes I read that section but he say:
"You can only measure positiv DC voltages up to 50V. You have also to respect the correct polarity."

I want to add voltmeter  feature like digital voltmeters to Tester. (when I change two prob a negative sign shown.)

well - for negative and /or AC measurement there's a need for more circuitry.

Do you think This circuit isn't sufficient for that purpose?


 can you please explain more about other circuits?
thank you.

[rddube]

Hello,

A question for Madires:

What are the features of the version 1.18M - are they listed anywhere? Is the ST7565 display version available and will it work with the Mega_T4_T5_st7565 version of the transistor Tester?

Also, does the 1.18M version have the Esr in circuit function?

Finally, how does it compare to the 1.12K version - major differences?

Many thanks,

Raymond

[madires]

What are the features of the version 1.18M - are they listed anywhere? Is the ST7565 display version available and will it work with the Mega_T4_T5_st7565 version of the transistor Tester?

Also, does the 1.18M version have the Esr in circuit function?

Finally, how does it compare to the 1.12K version - major differences?

The "trendy edition" supports the ST7565R controller, but I haven't tested it with the clone you've mentioned, because I don't got that one. The features are about the same and in-circuit ESR checks are supported too. The source code archive includes a readme file with all details.

[rddube]

Hello Everyone,

I am in deep trouble, as I had programmed my T3_T4_ST7585 transistor tester with Tom666 compilation and instructions. I thought it was great!

So I decided to compile and upload vers 1.18m of Madires (trendy edition)...all I got was a blank screen, nothing. So i tried re uploading the Tom666 version, but avrdude gives me all sorts of error messages, saying it can't read the Lfuse so it is aborting, device is not right device, etc. etc.

Have I bricked my transistor tester?

Any help would be most appreciated! Thank you!

[con-f-use]

Most likely you screwed up the fuse bits, and the controller now is set for use with an external crystal. Try to connect a crystal to reprogram the fuse bits properly or connect a function generator to the XTAL1 bin on the controller. Avrdude has the -B option to specify the SPI clock rate. For a 500kHz rescue clock, an appropriate example might be `avrdude -c usbtiny -p attiny861 -B250 -U hfuse:w:0xBITS:m -U lfuse:w:0xBITS:m`, look up the proper fuse bits for the software and your controller. Use that (maybe with the -f force option). It that doesn't work, you need a high voltage programmer. If that again doesn't work, you bricked it.

[madires]

I am in deep trouble, as I had programmed my T3_T4_ST7585 transistor tester with Tom666 compilation and instructions. I thought it was great!

The "trendy edition v1.18m" supports  ST7565R and HD44780, not ST7585. The k-firmware does neither. Sorry!

[rddube]

Most likely you screwed up the fuse bits, and the controller now is set for use with an external crystal. Try to connect a crystal to reprogram the fuse bits properly or connect a function generator. Avrdude has the -B option to specify the SPI clock rate. For a 500kHz rescue clock, an appropriate example might be `avrdude -c usbtiny -p attiny861 -U hfuse:w:0xBITS:m -U lfuse:w:0xBITS:m`, look up the proper fuse bits for the software and your controller. Use that (maybe with the -f force option). It that doesn't work, you need a high voltage programmer. If that again doesn't work, you bricked it.

Can you maybe point me in the right direction, how do I connect a crystal? I am using an Arduino Uno as a avrsip programmer...I have a few crystals that I can try , but not sure where and how to connect it?

Thank you!

[rddube]

I am in deep trouble, as I had programmed my T3_T4_ST7585 transistor tester with Tom666 compilation and instructions. I thought it was great!

The "trendy edition v1.18m" supports  ST7565R and HD44780, not ST7585. The k-firmware does neither. Sorry!

But the k firmware that Tom666 posted worked perfectly. How do I ressurect my "bricken" transistor tester? I have a copy of the original firmware that came with it, but avrdude refuses to let me do anything??

Tks

[rddube]

Most likely you screwed up the fuse bits, and the controller now is set for use with an external crystal. Try to connect a crystal to reprogram the fuse bits properly or connect a function generator. Avrdude has the -B option to specify the SPI clock rate. For a 500kHz rescue clock, an appropriate example might be `avrdude -c usbtiny -p attiny861 -U hfuse:w:0xBITS:m -U lfuse:w:0xBITS:m`, look up the proper fuse bits for the software and your controller. Use that (maybe with the -f force option). It that doesn't work, you need a high voltage programmer. If that again doesn't work, you bricked it.

I have the proper fuse bits that Tom666 posted earlier on for this transistor tester. Not sure what a function program generator is and a high voltage programmer either?

Please help! Thank u!

[rddube]

Here is the last command I sent with avrdude:

C:\WinAVR-20100110\bin\trunk\mega328_T3_T4_st7565>avrdude -c avrisp -p m328p -P
COM5 -b 19200 -e -U flash:w:"TransistorTester.hex":a -U eeprom:w:"Transistor.eep
":a -U lfuse:w:0xF7:m -U hfuse:w:0xD9:m -U efuse:w:0x04:m -v -F

avrdude: Version 6.1, compiled on Mar 13 2014 at 00:09:49
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
         Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch

         System wide configuration file is "C:\WinAVR-20100110\bin\avrdude.conf"


         Using Port                    : COM5
         Using Programmer              : avrisp
         Overriding Baud Rate          : 19200
         AVR Part                      : ATmega328P
         Chip Erase delay              : 9000 us
         PAGEL                         : PD7
         BS2                           : PC2
         RESET disposition             : dedicated
         RETRY pulse                   : SCK
         serial program mode           : yes
         parallel program mode         : yes
         Timeout                       : 200
         StabDelay                     : 100
         CmdexeDelay                   : 25
         SyncLoops                     : 32
         ByteDelay                     : 0
         PollIndex                     : 3
         PollValue                     : 0x53
         Memory Detail                 :

                                  Block Poll               Page
      Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  Max
W   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ---
-- ---------
           eeprom        65    20     4    0 no       1024    4      0  3600  36
00 0xff 0xff
           flash         65     6   128    0 yes     32768  128    256  4500  45
00 0xff 0xff
           lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  45
00 0x00 0x00
           hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  45
00 0x00 0x00
           efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  45
00 0x00 0x00
           lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  45
00 0x00 0x00
           calibration    0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0     0
 0 0x00 0x00
           signature      0     0     0    0 no          3    0      0     0
 0 0x00 0x00

         Programmer Type : STK500
         Description     : Atmel AVR ISP
         Hardware Version: 2
         Firmware Version: 1.18
         Topcard         : Unknown
         Vtarget         : 0.0 V
         Varef           : 0.0 V
         Oscillator      : Off
         SCK period      : 0.1 us

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.05s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x00ffff
avrdude: Expected signature for ATmega328P is 1E 95 0F
avrdude: safemode: Verify error - unable to read lfuse properly. Programmer may
not be reliable.
avrdude: safemode: To protect your AVR the programming will be aborted

avrdude done.  Thank you.

Tks,

Raymond

[rddube]

Well here I am again.

Read this in another forum:

"As someone mentioned, the first chip you may be able to fix by passing -B10 to avrdude. In order to program an AVR, the programmer has to be running at a slower speed than the chip you're programming is running. The fuses you have set cause the chip to run at 1Mhz using the internal clock, and -B10 will cause it to go slower (the defaults are suitable for programming a chip that is running faster than 4MHz)."

So i passed a -B10 command to avrdude and voila! it got my transistor tester back. The fuses were reset and I was able to reflash it with Tom666's compiled version of 1.12K.

Now for Madires: how do I get version 1.18m working on this transistor tester?

Many thanks to all of you!

[madires]

But the k firmware that Tom666 posted worked perfectly.

Is the ST7585 compatible with the ST7565R? I haven't checked the datasheet for the ST7585. Or have you messed up the 6 with the 8?

[rddube]

Hello Madires,

No, I think you are right, I did mix up the 6 and the 8. The ST7565R is a 65 x 132 Dot Matrix LCD controller/driver, while the ST7585 is a 66 x 102 Dot Matrix LCD controller/driver.

Somehow, (I think it might be Tom666) got the ST7585 to work with the 1.12K version of Karl Heinz. I'm really not experienced enough to port that code in the version 1.18m, do I guess we'll have to wait for if ever someone with knowledge and experience succeeds in doing it.

As you mentionned Madires, the features of ver. 1.12K and 1.18m are very similar, however I would have liked to compare. I am getting next week a more standard (2 line display) transistor tester in kit form (I have to solder it first) and I think I will try the 1.18m version on that one once it is completed. It is the kit format from Banggood.com.

Best regards,

Raymond

[madires]

Somehow, (I think it might be Tom666) got the ST7585 to work with the 1.12K version of Karl Heinz. I'm really not experienced enough to port that code in the version 1.18m, do I guess we'll have to wait for if ever someone with knowledge and experience succeeds in doing it.

You don't to have port any code, just check the settings of the working k-firmware's Makefile and config.h and adapt the corresponding #defines in the m-firmware's config.h. There are several settings for the LCD module and maybe the pin assignment needs some tweaks.

[tom666]

... how do I get version 1.18m working on this transistor tester? ...

Attached files contain compiled software for your T3, T4 tester with ST7565 controller (not ST7585). It was necessary to make the following modifications to the source code (files "config.h" and "ST7565R_SPI.c"):
- edit mappings ports of MCU and LCD
- cosmetic changes (LCD_FLIP_Y, LCD_CONTRAST, LCD_OFFSET_X)

[madires]

Attached files contain compiled software for your T3, T4 tester with ST7565 controller (not ST7585). It was necessary to make the following modifications to the source code (files "config.h" and "ST7565R_SPI.c"):
- edit mappings ports of MCU and LCD
- cosmetic changes (LCD_FLIP_Y, LCD_CONTRAST, LCD_OFFSET_X)

Thanks! I'll add your config.h settings to the next version. The change in ST7565R_SPI.c isn't necessary, simply put a "//" in front of "#define LCD_OFFSET_X" to disable the display offset in the x direction.

[rddube]

Thank you very much Tom666!

[rddube]

Question Tom666:

There is a file in the compiled version with 3 sets of fuses. I'm sort of worried about playing around with fuses, so do I need to change any fuses, or can I just upload the trendy 1.18m Hex and EEp files to get it going?

Thank you,

Raymond

[tom666]

Do not modify fuses - leave the original values. Only write flash and eeprom.

[rddube]

Questions for Madires:

Hello. I tested the version 1.18m on the T3_T4 ST 7565 tester and it seems to work well. However 2 questions:

1) Is it normal that for some capacitors, there is no ESR value shown (example 470uf capacitor, brand new) ?
2) For the ESR in circuit mode from the menu, is there a way to have it the tester to probe without having to press the button?

Also, my probes are soldered on pins 1 and 3, so I guess if I change the Esr in circuit function to use pin 3 instead of pin 2, that should be ok?

Many thanks!

[madires]

1) Is it normal that for some capacitors, there is no ESR value shown (example 470uf capacitor, brand new) ?

Have you run the self-adjustment? When the tester measures an ESR value lower than the internal resistance of the probe pins, the ESR value is considered invalid.

2) For the ESR in circuit mode from the menu, is there a way to have it the tester to probe without having to press the button?

Not at the moment.

Also, my probes are soldered on pins 1 and 3, so I guess if I change the Esr in circuit function to use pin 3 instead of pin 2, that should be ok?

Yes.