$20 LCR ESR Transistor checker project

[eas]

The 2mm plugs and jacks I ordered arrived. I cut a piece of plastic to cover the original holes in the case and drill for the 2mm jacks. It looks like there will be plenty of room for three across.



I'm gluing it on now. I'll probably wait until I have the protoboard I'm going to mount the ZIF socket on before I finalize the position of the jacks and drill new holes for them.

[CustomEngineerer]

The 2mm plugs and jacks I ordered arrived. I cut a piece of plastic to cover the original holes in the case and drill for the 2mm jacks. It looks like there will be plenty of room for three across.

I'm gluing it on now. I'll probably wait until I have the protoboard I'm going to mount the ZIF socket on before I finalize the position of the jacks and drill new holes for them.

That looks nice, thanks for the pic.

Edit: Removed quoted picture

[tom666]

Edit: If you look in the mikrocontroller.net repo Software/trunk/mega328_st7565/ directory, the TransistorTester.eep and TransistorTester.hex files are the prebuilt files ready to be installed on the arduino 328p that comes with the kit listed. These will work as is without any modification, of course if you want to change any options the Makefile is already there, all you have to do is rebuild it and install it on the tester.

Correct directory for this kit with G-LCD is mega328_st7565_kit.
The reason for this difference is the specific setting for LG-LCD (see attached picture).

Notes:
* MCU ATmega328P is not "Arduino 328p". Arduino is the hardware platform based on a MCU ATmega (from Atmel Corporation).
* "CustomEngineerer" (but also other users), please do not use unnecessarily button "Quote".

[CustomEngineerer]

Correct directory for this kit with G-LCD is mega328_st7565_kit.
The reason for this difference is the specific setting for LG-LCD (see attached picture).

Notes:
* MCU ATmega328P is not "Arduino 328p". Arduino is the hardware platform based on a MCU ATmega (from Atmel Corporation).
* "CustomEngineerer" (but also other users), please do not use unnecessarily button "Quote".

You are correct. I should not try to answer stuff like this late at night. I have corrected my post above so as not to mislead people. And by unnecessarily use quote button, I assume you mean including the original picture (or any other media) in the reply? If so, I agree. Normally I try to remove those from my replies, just missed it. I have gone back and removed it now. Thanks for the corrections.

[hapless]

There's also no need to quote the post immediately above yours unless you have reason to believe that it will be changed and thus make your reply seem less relevant.

@eas:
That looks like a very clean cut. May I ask what you used to cut that piece of plastic and how you're going to attach it (what kind of glue?)?

[eas]

The cut was a mess. I hacked it out of the case for a crappy wall-wart with some beefy side cutters (the first reasonably thick, non-clear plastic I could scrounge up). I cleaned up and squared off the edges with a couple files and contoured them.

I glued it with general purpose, non-corrosive (probably not important in this application) silicone adhesive because I figured I could rip it off if I decided I needed to start over. I crosshatched the backside and the surface of the case with an Xacto blade to try to provide better grip.

Before gluing it, I used the piece itself as a template for cutting a notch in the label.

Protoboard came today. I cut a piece and drilled it for the 2mm bannana plugs I got. I sacrificed one of them and clamped it in a drill chuck to use as a crude to cut threads in the holes. I'll post some photos once I have to finish it all up tomorrow.

[hapless]

I see, thanks. I've been having a bit of difficulty cutting out rectangular plastic parts: Plastic always wants to have a curved edge, it seems...

Yeah, pictures are always good  .

[bitseeker]

Looks good eas. A file fixes many a wonky cutting job.

[eas]

I finished the case mod and assembly of my AVR transitor tester kit. I'm pretty happy with the result. My protoboard skills need work, but I don't think I'm going to bother with making a PCB.



Detail photos on my blog

[quantalume]

eas, I like what you have done with your tester. Thanks for providing the eBay links to the plugs/jacks in your blog post. Do you note any parasitic reactances associated with the new wiring?

[eas]

I haven't, but I didn't spend much time looking.

I did note that during the calibration using the ZIF socket, it detected a 0.02 Ohm difference between the highest and lowest resistance test points, which works out to ~10% of the ~0.20 Ohm average resistance detected. I haven't compare this to any of the ebay units I have (an EZM GM328, a Fish8840, and a 91Make "T4"). Nevermind, I misinterpreted and misremembered.

Any suggestions on how to better investigate?

I must say, this is my favorite of all the units. I like the rotary encoder, having a compact case, and the flexibility of test leads or socket. I think I may mod this further to allow in-system-programming without opening the case. The socketed AVR is less useful when I have to take out 3 sets of screws to swap it. Actually, the tedious part is mounting the board back in the case, since one has to slip standoffs under the board and keep them there until there is something to hold them in place. This fussyness could be remedied with some hot-glue, but I'd rather just have something I can access via the battery compartment.

[ebswift]

I bought one of the graphical units with the case and after checking it out, bought 7 more through work, they are very nice (I used the first one to check the resistor values to build the others).  Now, something that would be a cool mod is having fine grained control over the frequency generator along with amplitude to use as a lab teaching tool, has anyone been looking into that?

[madires]

I bought one of the graphical units with the case and after checking it out, bought 7 more through work, they are very nice (I used the first one to check the resistor values to build the others).  Now, something that would be a cool mod is having fine grained control over the frequency generator along with amplitude to use as a lab teaching tool, has anyone been looking into that?

I'd shop for a DDS signal generator. The Transistor Tester generates a PWM and a swarewave based on the MCU's internal timers. So there are fequency steps based on the prescaler and counter value, i.e. non-continous frequency selection. The m-firmware allows you to select any supported frequency (sqarewave) using a rotary encoder. Add a potentiometer and you got an output level control

[tom666]

for inspiration
Today I found this interesting video with a great idea - Audio Cassette Box as housing for the LCR-T3 Tester

[madires]

I've just released trendy 1.19m with fancy pinout for 3-pin semiconductors, driver for ILI9341/ILI9342, color display support and some bug fixes: http://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/Software/Markus/

[bitseeker]

for inspiration
Today I found this interesting video with a great idea - Audio Cassette Box as housing for the LCR-T3 Tester
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Oh, wow. Hadn't thought of that. Thanks for posting, tom.

[nbritton]

Which one of these should I get? I have salvaged component bins filled with like 10,000 various unknown components, I need to sort through all of these. I can easily budget a few hundred dollars for something that can help get me organized. There are so many different variants of this project that I have no idea which one to get. How do you make sure you get one with the latest firmware, and which ones don't auto turn off after a few seconds, and can be powered by a AC adapter?

Pretty sure none of them come with the latest firmware. Especially with how quickly the the newer firmwares have been coming out. But thats one of the things that is so great about these, you can grab which firmware you want and build and install on your device. Which also means you can change things like auto turn off and many other features to however you want them (options can be set in the Makefile/fuses).

http://www.banggood.com/DIY-M12864-Graphics-Version-Transistor-Tester-Kit-LCR-ESR-PWM-p-986954.html

This seems to be one of the newer ones and contains most of the recommended hardware, but since it comes as parts if you want to switch any parts out you can. I have 2 of these I have really been enjoying them. They also seem to be one of the more frequently discussed in this thread as of late. If you don't want to have to build your own firmware, the K version of the firmware already has prebuilt binaries that will work with the kit without any modifications.

Edit1: If you look in the mikrocontroller.net repo Software/trunk/mega328_st7565_kit/ directory, the TransistorTester.eep and TransistorTester.hex files are the prebuilt files ready to be installed on the mega328p that comes with the kit listed. These will work as is without any modification, of course if you want to change any options the Makefile is already there, all you have to do is rebuild it and install it on the tester.

Edit2: Pointed to correct firmware directory for kit in edit1

Ok, thanks for your advice. I bought one and just finished assembling it. It says it is running version 1.12. How do I update it? The only AVR gear that I have are three Arduino Uno R3.

[tom666]

... How do I update it? The only AVR gear that I have are three Arduino Uno R3.

Tutorial "How to use the Arduino as ISP Programmer (In-System Programmer)":
https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoISP

The attached picture documenting my Arduino Duemilanove associated with the ATmega ISP Adapter.

I used official ArduinoISP sketch and this following commands:

For writing only Flash
avrdude -c avrisp -p m328p -P COM3 -b 19200 -e -U flash:w:"TransistorTester.hex":a -U eeprom:w:"TransistorTester.eep":a

For writing only Fuses (L=F7, H=D9, E=04)
avrdude -c avrisp -p m328p -P COM3 -b 19200 -U lfuse:w:0xF7:m -U hfuse:w:0xD9:m -U efuse:w:0x04:m

For writing Flash + Fuses (L=F7, H=D9, E=04)
avrdude -c avrisp -p m328p -P COM3 -b 19200 -e -U flash:w:"TransistorTester.hex":a -U eeprom:w:"TransistorTester.eep":a -U lfuse:w:0xF7:m -U hfuse:w:0xD9:m -U efuse:w:0x04:m

Note:
For proper operation it is important to use a baud rate of 19200 and set the correct number of the communication port for Arduino.

[timofonic]

I've just released trendy 1.19m with fancy pinout for 3-pin semiconductors, driver for ILI9341/ILI9342, color display support and some bug fixes: http://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/Software/Markus/

Nice! What are the hardware requirements? What's the most future-proof PCB and controller for this version? I got lost in this!

I see you are using Subversion, what about switching to Git? Why do you put tarballs instead using the nice features of software versioning and revision control systems? That way, modifications would be easier to follow

If you get insterested about switcing to Git: Would you consider making a mirror at GitHub?

[tom666]

... What are the hardware requirements? ...

You can find the required information in the files "Readme", the "config.h" and the "Makefile".

Hardware is identical with the standard circuit diagram. To control is possible to use a rotary encoder connected to the ports PD2, PD3.
Supported MCU: ATmega328 or ATmega328P (1MHz, 8MHz or 16MHz)
Supported Displays: HD44780 (character display - 4 bit parallel), ST7565R (graphic display 128x64 - SPI), ILI9341/ILI9342 (graphic display 240x320 or 320x240 - SPI)

[madires]

I see you are using Subversion, what about switching to Git? Why do you put tarballs instead using the nice features of software versioning and revision control systems? That way, modifications would be easier to follow

If you get insterested about switcing to Git: Would you consider making a mirror at GitHub?

Karl-Heinz manages the SVN and I'd like to keep the m-firmware in the central repo. One stop shopping I'm using git for another project already, but taking care about multiple mirrors wouldn't be one of my favourite tasks. Luckily someone else already does: https://github.com/svn2github/transistortester

[timofonic]

... What are the hardware requirements? ...

You can find the required information in the files "Readme", the "config.h" and the "Makefile".

Hardware is identical with the standard circuit diagram. To control is possible to use a rotary encoder connected to the ports PD2, PD3.
Supported MCU: ATmega328 or ATmega328P (1MHz, 8MHz or 16MHz)
Supported Displays: HD44780 (character display - 4 bit parallel), ST7565R (graphic display 128x64 - SPI), ILI9341/ILI9342 (graphic display 240x320 or 320x240 - SPI)

Are these more powerful MCUs to be pin compatible then?

So using an ATmega328P + ILI9342 or ILI9341 is the way to go?

I see you are using Subversion, what about switching to Git? Why do you put tarballs instead using the nice features of software versioning and revision control systems? That way, modifications would be easier to follow

If you get insterested about switcing to Git: Would you consider making a mirror at GitHub?

Karl-Heinz manages the SVN and I'd like to keep the m-firmware in the central repo. One stop shopping I'm using git for another project already, but taking care about multiple mirrors wouldn't be one of my favourite tasks. Luckily someone else already does: https://github.com/svn2github/transistortester

Oh, that's nice. It's a lot easier to look at the modifications. Thanks!

[ON1DQD]

for inspiration
Today I found this interesting video with a great idea - Audio Cassette Box as housing for the LCR-T3 Tester

I have exactly the same device, can anyone point me to the latest firmware for it?

Thanks in advance!

[tom666]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg659867/#msg659867

You can directly use the actual version (by Karl-Heinz Kübbeler) from the SVN archive designed for this type of tester:
https://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/Software/trunk/mega328_T3_T4_st7565/
Fuses:
lfuse:0xf7 hfuse:0xd9 efuse:0xfc (0x04)

I recommend to read the manual:   
https://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/Doku/trunk/pdftex/english/

Alternatively, a trendy software from Markus Reschke (madires):
http://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/Software/Markus/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/$20-lcr-esr-transistor-checker-project/msg723065/#msg723065

[bitseeker]

Is torch, the originator of this thread, still around?

It seems this well-developed (i.e., long ) thread would benefit from the addition of a summary section in the very first post to collect all the requisite and related info (or links thereto) in one place and then updated as new versions of hardware/software come out.