0030 What is a Huntron Tracker? 

Hey, I saw my name! My first video as a Patron. Thanks for the great content! :-)

I remember this device. When doing job interviews as a repair tech, the statement "no tracker will be allowed, oscilloscope & DVM will be supplied".

You have a real antique there! The founder of Huntron, Bill Hunt, probably helped built it around 1976 or 1977. There is one of these in our museum showcase at the factory. The old Trackers did use pretty high voltages but they worked well with the technology then. The Low, Medium and High ranges not only controlled the sine wave output voltage but also an internal source resistance similar to an ohmmeter. Low was 54ohms, Medium around 27Kohms and High around 74Kohms and worked to limit the available current. Current Tracker models allow the user to select the voltage, resistance and frequency settings. Enjoyed the video and seeing one of the original Tracker models still working.

The low setting is always a diagonal line. Medium and high are horizontal. Look up the Huntron Tacker 1000 manual for the proper signatures. Also, look for the "octopus component tester", which is a simplified version of the tracker that uses an oscilloscope in XY mode for the display.

I remember using a Huntron Tracker when I was a radio tech in the Marines. Brings back some memories!

I've used a Huntron Tracker 2000 for a long time. Very handy in certain situations. You can make your own using a simple circuit and the x and y inputs on an oscilloscope. If you have a good PCB to compare with it's really handy. We have somewhere a ton of blank 82S100 and PLS100 IC's and an old Data IO programmer that can do them. If they turn up maybe you'd like some as I've seen they are used in some of the repairs you do and hard to come by anymore.

That diagonal line on low setting suggests an internal leakage current. Perhaps a leaky capacitor that acts like a resistor.

At the Railway I worked for, in our electronics repair lab we had a Huntron Tracker and later a Polar Tracer. Both did the same job of comparing a known good working board vs a board which was defective. The testers had 2 pairs of leads. One pair would go to the good board and the other pair would go to the bad board. Using test leads you would connect them to the same place on both unpowered boards and the unit would switch back and forth between boards and you could see the electronic characteristics of the pins under test on screen, with any dissimilarity showing the defective pin or trace. A good operator would have a circuit diagram or reference sheets to record the good signal shape on to, to make future testing easier. It is not a component tester as such. It is an in circuit tester and shows the electronic characteristics of that point in the circuit allowing for all the R / C / Junctions etc at that point on the circuit board. While it takes skill to use it effectively, practically anyone can use it as it just simple comparison between two images on screen.

Those ribbon cable connectors you talk about are called IDC--"insulation displacement connectors". That might make them easier to find! They're still somewhat common, but most of the ones you can get today just go to .1" pin headers, not anything like a DE-9 or anything.

On the RU-vid channel "Mr. Carlson's Lab" (the man is an electrons genius by the way) he calls this a curve tracer and he made one out of an old Heathkit oscilloscope. His video ""ASHLY 3102 Stereo Equalizer" at approximately 28:49 he shows how to diagnose a stereo equalizer with it. He has other videos showing him using it, but this one came to mind.

i love this device. you can take a diode and see where it's bias point is and you can see if it's noisy/leaking. it is a curve tracer. you can check pretty much any component.

This definitely introduced me to something I didn't know existed.

Dude you are always making quality videos. I wish I had the time and energy you do. 👍

We used a Huntron at work long ago when I was repairing industrial motor drives. They were great for doing a quick capacitor check, a circle is good but a distorted circle is bad. Also good for checking transistors. Sometimes comparing a good board to a bad board would show a different curve indicating where the issue as on the bad board. I eventually made my own using a low voltage transformer and a resistor and using the oscilloscope in X-Y mode to display the V/I curve like the Huntron. That was a nice gift and definitely worth learning to use it.

The German HAMEG oscilloscopes have a Component Tester built in, which is basically the most simple version of the Huntron Tracker. It's cool, you can compare transistors to another and see if it's weak (remember the stair step? If it looked crooked or rounded off at the top, it means the transistor would be weak and not working right). I once hooked up an RTC IC from 1985 to it and it had a ton of "antlers" on the screen and they changed sides at exactly 1Hz... the test current alone made this clock chip tick! Its acoustical equivalent would be the Testofon (aka Contitest), which of course is an acoustic signature analyser and it's my favorite tool!

Huntron curve tracer is one of the best tool for any repair technician. I bought a chinese copy for use with an oscilloscope, mine comes with low, mid1, mid2 and high. 4 diferent scaning frecuencies and two inputs for test two boards at the same time. Best Regards.

Oh boy, have I used the Huntron tracker! As a repair technician for Intergraph. Great little devices.

As completely an aside, when you said, "reverse the polarity" I laughed out loud because of the over use of that in Star Trek Voyager. So, if you can fit that in, somehow, in future videos, to get a laugh out of ONE of your viewers, that would be GREAT. :D In all seriousness, GREAT video and super cool device!

I have a huntron (hunt-tron) at work, they are a really great diagnostic tool. They work best when comparing two or more components to a known good spare. They were NOT handmade, they were a VERY expensive piece of test gear!

The correct term for those "Ribbon Connectors" is Insulation Displacement Connector or IDC. I used many of those back in the day !! Still have some with and without ribbon cable connected. The "Huntron Tracker" is a great tool for testing components, they can easily be home made to use with an oscilloscope, plenty of plans online. I used one many years ago when I worked for a Manufacturing and Repair Section of British Telecom. (England's Version of Ma Bell, AT&T etc)

I've seen similar units when I was in the Navy in the 80s and early 90s, also seen a few oscilloscope add-ons. They can be quite handy for diagnosing components in circuit when used properly. Just understanding the general shape can find bad components but adding in a known-good component can help find marginal components. Hope you can figure out the low setting issue as that's probably most useful. Great video.

Up untill 2018 I was using a Polar 1500, which is a similar machine, very usefull for diagnosing SMPS. It would go up to 42volts on high but very little current 5mA. On the Low setting it would be about 10V@ 100mA. I've never blown up a TTL with it over the nine years I was working there. So pretty safe I'd say.

I'll never forget the look my mother gave my father when I was about 12 years old and he refered to some kind of connector as Male or Female... and him saying "That's what they're called" and her being like "Well you don't have to refer to them like that with our son" Every time I think about that I laugh.

Good videos. A working unit is current limited. Those are open circuit voltages. Best used for production comparing a bad unit to a good one. Probe around the board looking for differences. Pre-digital worked ok.

The tracker is a combination component tester and allows you to compare two identical circuits, one known to be good, and any significant difference found would indicate an issue and then work your way down to the component level. The component tester function gives a representative display linear line for resistance, circular display for a capacitor, I-V curve for a diode, regular and zener break over on the left end of the curve. Heathkit had a component tester that I built years ago and still have. Have fun, should be good for troubleshooting at the PCB/component level. Nice gift!

I have used and continue to use "analog signature analyzers" mostly with discrete electronic devices. In regards to the voltages, use only voltages that are lower than what the device is rated for (e.g. 5V or less for a 5v rated circuit). Also, bear in mind that the limitations begin reveal themselves when it comes to LSI circuitry for a number of reasons. If you search for several designs over the internet, you can actually find DIY designs that you could use with several pieces of the equipment you already have reviewed on both of your channels. Used Huntron, Data-VU, HeathKit, and several other versions used, however... I now use a DIY version that's really cheap and works very well with my function generator in sine wave mode, along with my power supply, which uses my O'Scope in X-Y mode. Not fancy, but very useful when needed and hardly adds any space to my work bench. I requested a logistics manager at my work to purchase a "modern version" for our lab, and it's been very useful for identifying LOTS of defective discrete SMT devices, provided the appropriate skills are used. It's a small USB powered version that connects to a Win10 PC with it's own software, and it takes less space than the Hantek O'Scope reviewed in the video.

I run a lab for the DoD that repairs circuit card assemblies using analog signature analysis. It's an excellent troubleshooting method, with a great many advantages and benefits, but it's not a panacea. It's especially bad at finding intermittent faults and faults that only occur under actual operating conditions. That all being said, the modern modern-day version of ASA is almost exclusively comparison-based. That is, we maintain a library of stored, “known good” signatures for the cards we repair (called “routines”) on a computer. The Huntrons we use, the Tracker 32s, connect to this computer, and show us a real-time comparison of what the known good signature for an in-circuit component should look like, based on having recorded it on a known good card at some time in the past. You can still do some rudimentary troubleshooting without the library of signatures, but as somebody else mentioned in their comments, there’s a lot of guessing and trial/error involved. Having a library of signatures, or a known-good example of the same device you can bounce signatures against is THE big methodology to ASA troubleshooting. The big advantages of ASA under ideal conditions are: * It’s fast * It doesn’t require the DUT to be functional or even powered up * The operator doesn’t need to know anything about how the card under test works (although it often proves useful to know a little something about it). The bigger your library of routines, the more cards you can quickly “shoot” with a Huntron and find the faults with. Huntron even sells a “Prober”, a big, automated robotic prober that can quickly do the probing from component to component on a given card. Good if you have LOTS of broken cards of one type. The power supplies in Huntrons, while capable of putting out high voltage, are current limited, so damaging most discreet components isn’t likely. But for ICs, I’d definitely limit my testing to the low range mode. I’ve never seen an example of that version of the Tracker you have there, so I’d imagine it’s one of their original products. Maybe from the late1980s or early ‘90s? The diagonal resistance signature you get in low range is new to me. The newer Huntrons do NOT do this, but it may be normal for the old ones to introduce resistance in that mode…not really sure why, though, as it distorts the resulting signatures, as you saw. I’m guessing there’s an undesired resistance being inserted into the circuit when you press the button. It could be a dirty switch contact introducing some resistance.

I got some of those ribbon cable to IC plug cables made up at Digi-Key a couple of years ago. They were very reasonably priced too.

The Tracker is just an improvement - actually several - on the "octopus" we used to use in the old '70s navy electronics game. Back then, we just built them ourselves.

Made my own in 1984. Works great, very simple circuit.

Also, remember to test the circuit unpowered or you might damage the huntron.

Fascinating... never seen a device like that.

Thanks Adrian!

3:25 you can still buy them on digikey, a 40 pin .600 width dip to IDC connector, they have almost 700 of assman ADIP 40Z-LC at 2 bucks a pop (and they have all sorts of pin counts and row spacing if you need a 14 pin .300 dip) few years ago I was into building my own computers by hand phase, I would build the core system as a single board computer, and use these to break out to more complex boards where more than one chip would live

Hi Adrian, you can still get those 40 pin DIP to IDC ribbon cable adapters. I found part No. HWS15322 for sale by Phoenix Enterprises for $1.68 each. They also carry the 20 pin version, HWS5092.

That tracker is quite nice. I had one at a former workplace and it was dead useful. Once you get familliar with their usage they are super convenient and are even superior to some modern test gear.

Awesome for comparing working equipment with an identical non working one. I made my own using XY inputs on my oscilloscope and mixing in my signal generator. Can also use it to compare left and right channels in an audio circuit. You need to modify it to bring down the voltage so not to damage TTL logic.

I had a Huntron back in the '90s. Basically it applies a forward and reverse current at a set voltage and shows the characteristics of the component attached. The green line scans left to right about the y axis if nothing is attached. (Negative voltage on the left side of the y axis positive on the right. The vertical or x axis has negative and positive current going up and down). A good capacitor would show an ellipse on the screen or a circle depending on the capacitor value. A resistor would show a diagonal line - the angle of the line denoting the value - the more vertical the closer you're getting to 0 Ohms. A diode would show its forward and reverse breakdown voltages, so look for a horizontal line the bends ninety degrees at about 0.6 of a volt for forward breakdown in a silicon diode and no reverse breakdown so no bend on the opposite side of the line. You can adapt a normal oscilloscope to work as a Huntron Tracker. I think Paul Carlson of "Mr Carlson's lab" on RU-vid builds one in one of his videos. I don't remember the 10 volt range being different than the others, it should be a flat line. Looks like there's some DC resistance on the output on that range. I would try just cleaning the switches with switch cleaner or looking for dry solder joints before doing anything else.

We used trackers for troubleshooting duty cycle and linear PS in the commercial two-way and paging base station radio industry many years ago. After a fairly long and steep learning curve one can decrease fault determination time on these circuits significantly, especially if the fault prevents analysis in the powered state. I believe Adrian will find it useful for pre-failure fault analysis of his AE-35 units when his HAL-9000 model B is busy slugging down high quality flavored vodka and singing songs with a a certain off key naked monolith😬

Looks like it's part component tester (producing a characteristic) and part network analyser. Doesn't take measurements but allows for comparison.

The huntron i used in the 80's had the same 45' trace on low , but we never used it on low... the resulting trace is the voltage over current trace of the component being tested. horizontal = voltage , vertical = current .

I have a newer version of it and have since it was new. The diagonal is normal for low setting with open leads and the one test you did on low that displayed a Z looking trace is also normal as the maximum voltage is not high enough to exceed the junction breakdown point. Standard process is to start in low then if needed step up to next range. Normally low is all used for germanium devices but silicone might require medium.

That's great old-school equipment! I have schematic in one old book to create adapter with similar functionality for classic oscilloscope. There was even screen captures for all different component types, including semiconductors and description how to tell difference between n-p, p-n etc.. Great stuff. With this tool it is easy to find any analog or TTL chip with bad input or output, if You know, what are You looking for.. 😉 But low voltage for this tracer is higher, than in schematic what I have.. How I remember, there was 6VAC transformer for TTL logic..

It's a curve tracer. Makes a graph of voltage vs current, similar to the graphs shown on datasheets. Diodes appear as hockey-sticks with the knee showing the forward voltage, and reverse voltage for zeners. Resistors appear as a line with the slope showing the resistance. Capacitors and inductors appear as ovals. The closer the oval is to a circle, the more capacitive or inductive. The closer the oval is to a line, the more resistive. But need to vary the frequency to get the full story for capacitors and inductors. PS - And need to talk to Einstein and Feynman about how fast electrons can travel and change direction in a conductor. But that's a whole 'nother story, which Schottky and Moore figured out :-)

Ribbon cable connectors like that are IDC (Insulation-displacement connector). They cut through the insulation and make the connection to all the pins as you clamp it down. Clamping them is a little bit tricky if you don't have the dedicated tools but not too difficult.

I have a bunch of db9 ribbon adapters that I bought about a year ago brand new. So they definitely still make them. They even have a second plastic clamp for strain relief.

I have used these but cannot afford what they want for them used. You can build an "octopus" that runs on 60 hz easily enough. As far as expanding the capability of the homebrew, I would think that having selectable test voltages would be more immediately useful than the selectable frequencies of the Huntron. The selectable frequencies are more useful for testing capacitors. As 60 Hz is too low to use with smaller value caps. You can spot problems in caps with a Huntron type circuit if you do not have a cap tester that can measure stuff like DA and ESR. If you match the frequency to the range of the cap value. The lower test voltages can give you a better view of the knee in a solid state device. But the Huntron was always an adjunct versus a primary test set for most stuff.

I normally make videos about valve radio repair as anything with a processor is a bit too close to the day job but have really been enjoying your vintage computer stuff. I must have trashed such a lot of XT computer and BBC micros back in the day. May god have mercy!

How wonderful he doesn't say without further ado anymore

I actually USED this device. Oh… the memories!

say you have a transistor and the emitter base junction will give you that l shape. if it's not a clean L shape say you have a spike in it. then thats a sign of leakage and a bad transistor. same with a zener diode you will get 2 L shapes. these are the best devices ever made. and still relevant is today's technology.

I want to say Mr Carlson's lab shows you how to make one of those curve tracers. If that is what it is anyways

Hello, I have a Huntron model 1005B-1S. It is a fantastic tool. I bought mine used. I use it for post-production testing prior to powering up the pcb for the first time and general trouble shooting. My particular unit has an alternator that allows me to use one board as a reference and am able to compare it to a DUT. You do not have to worry about destroying any semi-conductor junctions as the currents involved are quite low. If you let me know how to contact you, I will download the operation and service manuals for my unit. The detail in both are a wealth of knowledge (they don't write then like that anymore). While your unit seems quite rudimentary it appears to be quite functional. The diagonal line in the "low" position is normal....... Jack

I have a hameg scope with this function baked in, a component test button, very useful if you have a good pcb to compare. The story I heard at college was the huntron rep did his demo then the head of department said "so it's the same as pressing this button here" and that was the end of that sales pitch.....

Older tube oscilloscopes used to have a "component tester mode" button. Which is X-Y mode, with an internally supplied AC low voltage. That's about what it is. But be careful with that thing, because compared to an oscilloscope in tester mode, this thing can supply a much higher voltage to the under test circuitry, useful exclusively for tube circuit troubleshooting. It may (and will) kill instantly any component -even an entire board- if set to the wrong setting.

A mosfet will give variable readings depending on the the charge on the gate. Every time you touch the gate you put a different charge on it.

I have the TPI Scope Plus 440 with the same functionality. On the COMP setting you will get the lines you saw. I believe that the vertical is current and the horizontal is capacitance or inductance. This is why Caps and Coils give you circles transistors will show angles in resistance and when the PN or NP breaks down to short it will go straight up or straight down. I have used it in troubleshooting school intercom systems to find the error many times. I would not consider myself a pro however. I believe TPI has there main office near you.

That first box looks like my Amiga project box, full of those connectors that have cableclamps. And that rainbow coloured ribbon cable that makes it 9,23, 25,or 50 x easier to solder.

Mr Carlsons Lab uses something similar to test capacitors and other components :) he explains it in great detail :)

i wonder if you try low without the leads connected if you get the same line on low. my assumption is your reading the resistance in the test leads, maybe cleaning up the connection/ connector into the machine or replacing. Best of luck Adrian!!

Nice !

I already use an Huntron tracer about 30 years ago. We were using it to find defective power transistor. By taking the view of a good one then compare with another one to see how far the junction move. A brand new transistor will have a longer lie and a vertical higher (gain), and old transistor start to give a lower diagram, so we can see if the transistor will go the fail in a short futur. That was a very good tool to track part going to fail. The secret is using that device to compare new part with other, so you can see if the junction/resistor/inductor value change.

"This package is from Elmers" (Elmars) Me: Immediately thinks the glue company sent you something

I have a similar functionality on my HAMEG oscilloscope, called "component tester". 😊

Well whatever its used for its super cute. If you don't use it for actually testing anything you could use it for a robot friend.

You could always try to use Kicad and create an adapter board for the Apple II/Clone expansion connectors.

I actuallly have one of the tools to put those connectors into and to clamp the wires into them. Huntron Trackers are VERY cool if you have two units to compare, or a premade tracker trace in a tech manual of what a test point SHOULD look like.

Those things bring a LOT of money nowadays.

You can do same thing with frequency generator and an oscilloscope in XY mode check out w2aew's older videos.

I was involved with electronics all of my working life, and never saw a tracker. It would have been useful. As for the ribbon cable connectors, I am pretty sure they are still available. In 2016 I had to make up some test cables using 37 pin connectors, and was able to buy them and the assembly tool with no trouble.

The older Huntron Trackers from before the 2000 series have different behavior on the lowest setting, your unit seems to behave normally on the low setting

Man. The new ones are not cheap. Not coming to my lab any time soon.

Heathkit made a similar device it-2232 component tracer. It uses a common CRT and almost all components are available. The transformer is the only item that may be an issue. Only 2 voltage levels are available vs 4 levels on a Huntron 2000.

I know it's super-pedantic, but it does always drive me nuts when you refer to "DB-9" connectors. DB is the larger size, as used in DB-25 connectors. The smaller ones were DE-9/DE-15 (serial/VGA), and gameports were DA-15.

I have to say that I've been out of electronics for a somewhat of years, but I always loved IDC connectors - they seem the perfect easy solution for ribbon cables... do I gather that they are not so much in use nowadays?

Based on the resistor/inductor/capacitor picture it looks like a V/I plot where the tracker puts out a ramped up ramped down(sine/triangle not sure) plots output voltage(X) and plots current draw(Y)

if you can focus the screen, it's a CRT type system that uses a mini tv screen. tv screen i.e., crt tube

Since you are seeing a diagonal (resistance on low) signal with the probes connected does it show a diagonal with the probes disconnected?

8:43 - My guess is that that's a lower-case character generator ROM.

Not being familiar with that particular tracker, it does look like its behaving as a basic characteristic curve tracer. With a voltage against current display. Quite handy for testing passives and semiconductors!. But, its old.. So at those voltages i would be be keeping it away from TLL chips!. Its probably designed for fixing devices that dont have logic chips, more like transistor circuits or other analog higher voltage stuff. Inductors and capacitors should show a round (ish) shape. Because they are 90 degrees phase devices, leading or lagging by 90 degrees. Resistors are 0 phase so show a straight line. Semiconductors should show a characteristic curve giving an indication of forward junction conducting or a zener reverse voltage slope. Try a simple diode. Handy!.

It would be worth reaching out to CuriousMarc and Huntron, you are not an insubstantial channel yourself. Colabs are always fun and learning is good for everyone.

I have a homemade signal tracer (thanks to mr carlson), and there's a pot that corrects rotation... so I imagine if you open it up, you might find 3 pots for flattening the 3 voltage ranges.

Used to call those Huntron guessers. They can work, but you have to be part wizard to get any really useful info from them, in my experience.

this device on 10:00 looks like Octopus tester, where X is voltage, Y is current.

Never heard the name Huntron before.It's just a IV tracer with a fancy name. It' s mostly useful for switches, diodes and bipolar transistors (It can destroy Mosfets). Your unit have a problem with the low settings. It react as it have a resistor between the leads.

3:30 ... IDC (Insulation-displacement connector/cable) 🧐​ ... is curious... we all know it as "ribbon cable" and "ribbon cable connector".. like if the cable give the name to the thing ​....... but actually the connector gives the name to the technology ​🤓​.. IDC = Insulation-displacement connector.... and Insulation-displacement cable... as we can see in wikipedia 😉​

Anyone know where you can source a CRT for a Huntron 1000, 2000 or similar? I missed the clearance sale back when Huntron cleared them out at $50 each. Mine still works but has a nasty screen burn.

Either way, it shows the low voltage line as a diagonal .

Looks like I-v curves to me. Very neat toy you got yourself here! Could it be that the device diagnoses itself on ‚low‘ setting? Looks like leakage current to me. It should be a flat line (I.e. no current on open connection) as there shouldn’t be any current flowing. But the trace rather looks like a resistor: current proportional to the voltage, I.e. a diagonal trace. I’ll bet three cookies on you finding a broken cap in the ‚low‘ setting circuitry.

Youngs-town not Young-ston. I grew up there.

Adrian, Mr Carlson's Lab has a video on using curve tracers! Check it out! 👍😁

I too used a Huntron Tracker 2000 yrs ago. It was at a job troubleshooting printer PCBs where the schematics were not available. The unit I had was a DUAL TRACE model that automatically switched the display from either test lead. Theoretically if you were testing the same point on two boards the signature should match... If not there was I problem to Track down. Back in the 90s this thing was $12k.

I would think that is a proto type for the huntron tracker 1000. Why else would you have to trun the case on its side? I have Huntron 2000 with HSR 410 addon. Handy tool to have for trouble shooting electronics.

Mr Carlson will be fuming, this is pretty much his design lol

You need two more huntron trackers and then you could verify the Low setting.

Think of your tracer as a tool best used for making (often in-circuit) comparisons against a known good/working standard. E.g. I have my broken [A:] C64 shortboard and [B:] a working C64 shortboard, I can now assess individual components in-situ via A B comparisons of the in-circuit signatures. I do think the Low setting has some kind of fault, as it too should be flatlined when unloaded, as you suspected. It looks as if the tracer on low is connected to a phantom resistor... WILD ASS GUESS: An old cap in the sense circuit has fallen out of spec. ESR has crept out of tolerance or a caps begun to leak outright. Open it up and take a look, perhaps there will be some obvious candidates or a way to readjust the biases.

the tracker is a simplified curve tracer

ask Mr Carlson's Lab, he knows it very well. He can explain it to you very well.

the Tracker reminds me of a curve tracer seen on Mr Carlson's lab

I'm currently hand-soldering a ribbon cable to some round pin headers to try make a chip extender. Some of those IDC things, which seem to be called transition connectors, would be ideal. Unfortunately all the common big ones are 40 pin, and I need 42 pins... I've seen that there may have also been 50 pin varieties at one point but can't find any for sale. Anyone got any idea where I might find the kind of thing I need?