Products > Test Equipment
Show Us Your Curve Tracer
Electro Fan:
--- Quote from: AaronLee on October 03, 2021, 09:17:55 am ---I was reading about this guy's (named Paul) project:
http://www.paulvdiyblogs.net/2017/
And his latest version 3 of it:
http://www.paulvdiyblogs.net/2021/03/building-curve-tracer-version-3.html
Looks interesting to me, but I don't have a curve tracer yet. I'm quite interested in acquiring a curve tracer, but not in a big hurry, so maybe I'll wait until he's finished version 3. Anyone have any opinions on his approach?
--- End quote ---
Prior to this thread while looking at curve tracers from the high end to the entry level, and especially at the ELV and successor designs, I came across Paul's work which has evolved into the VBA curve tracer. Fwiw, the work done by Paul and his colleagues was something that helped stimulate this thread. It struck me at the time that Paul's project was a potentially very good or maybe excellent approach to designing a curve tracer that could address a lot of needs and interests, possibly at the professional/commercial level and definitely at the academic/teaching level and at the enthusiast level. IMO, Paul (V) and his colleagues (B and A) have been on a very thoughtful, open, tenacious, and admirable path and I'd bet that they will continue until they are confident they are "there." And my guess is they might keeping going with further enhancements and ideas beyond "there." I'd love to see V, B, and A participate here and have the opportunity for forum members to become a sounding board, adopters, and potentially contributors to the advancement of the VBA curve tracer.
Shock:
Get them to post about it in the projects forum, it's there to discuss projects.
I'll also add it's not so much a resurgence in curve tracers but electronics more accessible and collaborative, especially with video streaming. Dave himself mentioned about lurking in the electronics newsgroup back in the day, it was fairly primitive.
Online auction/classified sites also give us access to cheaper gear and at some point past the multimeter, scope, psu stage people may want to characterize components. So it's not like curve tracers are the next biggest thing, they have always been around, we just don't have wait months to discover a cheap design in a magazine anymore. Now it's go on youtube or ebay and a few bucks later you can get a basic IV curve. Or many curves if you throw more money at it. :D
Dwaine:
Here is my setup....
antenna:
I went as cheap as I could. An old DC adapter cut open to convert to AC (5.82vRMS), a 400ohm resistor, a BNC jumper cut in half and the probe from my LCR meter. Picoscope 3206D XY mode with custom probes programmed to get the scales correct.
Messtechniker:
Poor man's curve tracer on the Hameg HMO 1022 scope:
Same green LED connected to DL4JAL curve tracer:
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version