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Component tester on oscilloscopes
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vk6zgo:

--- Quote from: Aurora on February 14, 2014, 01:14:28 pm ---I-V curves can tell you more about a semiconductor junction than a multimeter.... that is why the Huntron Tracker was such a success in industry. A Tracker can identifiy unusual situations on PCB mounted components when compared to a known good board...it can be a very efficient diagnostic tool if you use it correctly and understand the displayed images.  For those wanting an auto switching comaprison mode, the Huntron HT1005B just incorporates a SPDT relay that is driven by a simple low frequency oscillator and the relay contacts present one of the two input channels to the Trackers meaurment input. A 555 based oscillator running at 1 Hz or less and connected to a SPDT relay would be an easy implimentation of such  :)

Also these are great for seeing a worn potentiometer.....really nasty display on a poor one or one that is worn/intermittent.

I am not going to so a sales pitch on I-V display devices..... I suppose you like them and find them useful, or you don't   :)

--- End quote ---

Indeed!

On another thread,I posted the following:-

"We had a Huntron Tracker at one of the TV Stations I was at.Only one Tech ever used it much,& he swore by it.
As far as I could see,you needed another good board to compare with,& if I had that,I could do the same things with an Oscilloscope & DMM,so I never spent the time needed to learn its use.(probably my loss!)"


I was in the majority,too!
The poor old Huntron languished in the test Equipment cupboard for years at a time.
Every once in a while,someone would take it  out & fiddle for a while,then give up!

We very seldom had "spare" boards,so you had to remove one from another working unit.
(If you had a  good board in another faulty unit,you usually "cannibalised" one or the other to get one working unit.)


With a good & a bad board,& two units,if the "bad" one didn't have a fault which would damage the equipment,we could compare waveforms & DC voltages,either by "board swapping",or with both units powered up.
Fraser:
But have you seen the prices they fetch on e*ay  :o  I was lucky to buy mine as ex military kit and at less than $100. The Tracker 2000 sells for a significant sum. I managed to buy a TR210 (sold by Tektronix) for $75...a bargain compared to the sums that they sell for on e*ay. That unit is designed for modern very low voltage digital electronics and can also stimulate components that need such. It is the sort of tool that will only pay for itself if you use it a lot and are one of the people who gets on with the I-V diagnostic process.  I have to admit that I was trained (merchant marine) to diagnose faults on live boards with an oscilloscope and multimeter too. It was only in my work in 'industry' that I used the Huntron. I had built an Octopus tester at the grand age of 7 so its principles were not new to me but the implementation had obviously been adapted to suit industry.  The HTR1005 series are a bit agricultural when compared to the more modern designs like the TR210 etc.

 
bsco:
For the amount of time that I would use something like that, it would not be cost effective to buy one....The $10 scope add on circuit would do well for me....however, if I did find one at a rock bottom price I probably would buy it just to have it...I am sure that they are very useful and if you used them all the time they would be a great benefit....but I can't see me using something like that to repair guitar amps and pa gear.....for one thing I never have two identical makes and models in for repair at the same time..and every now and then I might get a couple of controls boards from a printing press.......and I have to use the DMM to troubleshoot these as I don't have a 4 million dollar printing press here in my home to test the boards...so I have to rely on my knowledge of electronics...and how to use my test gear...which I will admit can be very difficult and time consuming at times but I also learn a lot from this...we had a device at work for testing boards..very expensive and was not used much at all.....it wasn't a Huntron but it did the same thing....
Fraser:
One use that I have put the Huntrons to is to literally 'fly' around a PCB populated with transistors to check that all junctions are correct. It can get a little complex with some transistor configurations creating unusual responses. I personally find this quicker than a multimeter as you only have to apply the probes once per test as opposed to forward and reverse as in a multimeter test. If \I have a schematic I carry out normal fault tracing strategies like the 'half split' method but when no schematic is available reverse engineering a PCB can take time and the Huntron MAY just save that time by identifying which part of the circuit has been damaged. The reverse engineering can then focus on the circuit around the damaged component and the cause of failure.

I also have the HTR210 and HTR410 IC testing adapters. These enable comparison of IC's in terms of their pin characteristics. I have been able to find a substitute IC for an unmarked one by comparing it to my best guess....it was just an LM324 ! I did the same on another occasion with a Custom IC number...it turned out to be an SL6440 High active Mixer. The sample has to have enough pins still operational though as a totally fried IC will not be any use for this test. Try doing that with an unpowered IC and a multimeter  ;)

The Huntron is no panacea to fault tracing but I would not be without one now. The same applies to my Polar ToneOhm's and thermal imaging cameras. Your approach is very sensible IMHO. You can use the simple octopus tester on transistors without needing to spend a lot of money on a Huntron Tracker.
bsco:
Thanks for the encouragement Aurora....If I was doing a lot of digital boards I would definately invest in something to help speed things up but  for right now, that is not the case...but in the future and maybe in the near future things could change...if that does happen then I'll look into getting something...
Cheers,
Bernie
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