Building a DIY Curve Tracer

[Dbldutch]

Nice to see a number of Makers building our Curve Tracer.
We see that as a compliment for the work we put in!

Right now, most of what is reported here is the procurement of the PCB's, however, it would be great if you would post some results as well, like the completed instrument or the stuffed boards. Just so others could get motivated to start this project as well.

BTW, if you have issues getting parts from the published BOM's on my Github, feel free to post an issue there so we can try to resolve that.
As you may know, designing something is bliss, manufacturing it is hell...certainly over time.

Good luck with your projects,
Paul

[clytle374]

I'm trying to build a BOM on digikey right now, have a bunch errors loading it.  Not sure if I should keep fighting it, or just give in and start over.  I'm about ready to just order the stuff and figure out what I missed later.   I have the following issues

P1 and P2, they don't sound so good from the comments, but when I entered the part # into digkey it shows a 3 position part, and the picture shows a 5 position part.  Looked like crazy for some lever action spring clamps, or zif sockets.   

The days for newark having the banana jacks for $2 is over, now it's $5 vs $5.97 

Several of the swiches that are out of stock at digikey are in stock out mouser, for about the same or less.  Now to see if my mouser curse breaks. lol

[jiri]

If you are interested, I am offering a complete kit for this project. Components purchased from Mouser and Digikey, PCB from a member of this forum. Reason for sale is time pressure. Components are complete, including mechanical parts, transformers, box...

[Lstkartagi]

I am getting ready to build the VBA Curve Tracer, PCBs and parts mostly on hand, some still arriving.  Edit ...
On front board P70/P71 ...  Ah, I completely misunderstood the comments here and on fb, just starting out at parts ordering and reading assembly instructions.  I think they were referring to another set of connectors, two 3-pin connectors P1 and P2 on the front panel, not to the two front panel test jig connections ... sorry for my misunderstanding, a first way too quick read of the comments before I better understood the project.

https://github.com/paulvee/VBA-Curve-Tracer/blob/main/Front%20panel%20and%20Front%20board%20Construction-Installation%20Instructions.pdf

I guess it's been a couple of years on since the project came out, are any others building this project now?

[Lstkartagi]

hmm, guess I'm going to need to sort these parts out a bit, maybe starting with Rs and Cs ... (that's not my SMT soldering iron in the pic)

[Lstkartagi]

I'm trying to build a BOM on digikey right now, have a bunch errors loading it.  Not sure if I should keep fighting it, or just give in and start over.  I'm about ready to just order the stuff and figure out what I missed later.   I have the following issues

P1 and P2, they don't sound so good from the comments, but when I entered the part # into digkey it shows a 3 position part, and the picture shows a 5 position part.  Looked like crazy for some lever action spring clamps, or zif sockets.   

The days for newark having the banana jacks for $2 is over, now it's $5 vs $5.97 

Several of the swiches that are out of stock at digikey are in stock out mouser, for about the same or less.  Now to see if my mouser curse breaks. lol

Did you finish the build?  How did it go?