(show your) Transistor testers

[PA4TIM]

I was looking at a EEV blog video about the old electronic magazines. Dave showed a page from a 70's magazin that was an advertisement for a lafayette transistor tester. I happen to have one but could never find info about it. The brand is not printed on it. only the type.
I hope someone has more info. It is the left one

Besides that it would be nice to show other transistor testers. My oldest is from 1955, the newest a Peak, the best a Tek 576 

http://www.pa4tim.nl/?p=971 more pictures and info from all my testers

[ftransform]

I was going to build this micro controller based transistor tester but it has limitations..
http://www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/AVR-Transistortester

what is the difference between hFE and hfe?


The difference between hFE and hfe is: FE is for a fixed DC bias and a fixed DC current gain (and that must be specified for each value of hFE). hfe is the small signal AC current gain (and it is also specified for a given bias). hfe is frequency dependant. hFE is only good at DC.
-yahoo answers!

[PA4TIM]

yes I know the difference, Tek has a nice book from the concepts series that explains all transistor parameters. There are a whole series of h parameters. hFE and hfe are just two of them. if you are buildomg one, GR has an exerimenter about how to measure all other h parameters including the math. they use a GR1650B for that. I want to do that one day. allready used curvetracers Homebuild and Teks, for that. But today most times S parameters are more important. I use a vna for that.

The testers are just collectables. If I need to realy know if a transistor is OK I use the 576

[ftransform]

I wrote the difference because I read on your comment on your web page and I did not know the difference, so I looked it up, and decided to post it here. Initially it was just a question but doing a more through google search found the answer, so I answered my own question. I am not trying to lecture you, sorry if it came out that way.

[PA4TIM]

No, problem. I bet a lot of people do not know and like to read it. And in a topic about transistortesters it is also on topic.

[jucole]

No, problem. I bet a lot of people do not know and like to read it. And in a topic about transistor testers it is also on topic.

I didn't know that! what a nugget! thanks

Here's my cheap and cheerful testers;  btw: the cheap one is at the top ;-)

[PA4TIM]

This is my Peak component tester together with the LCR meter and ESR meter.

[madires]

Mine is homebuild. For Eagle files and some pictures see http://www.mikrocontroller.net/svnbrowser/transistortester/Hardware/Markus/. You'll find docs and firmware in the same SVN (some directories up).

[madires]

I was going to build this micro controller based transistor tester but it has limitations..
http://www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/AVR-Transistortester

That's the obsolete version. Please see http://www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/AVR_Transistortester for the current one.

[lemmegraphdat]

I don't remember where the heck I got the Micronta. It's still in the box with the plastic bag, cardboard sleeve and the operating instructions.

[jucole]

Regarding the "Peak" transistor tester,  they offer a firmware upgrade service for (£12.77 + VAT) + shipping, which I think is quite reasonable.
Here is a PDF with some info regarding the firmware updates to date; http://www.peakelec.co.uk/downloads/dca_software_versions.pdf