I already have the IC tester, it's well WORTH ever cent paid for it. We have the more expensive ones at work and they start at $200.00 plus dollars. I just purchased the TC1 tester during the watching of your video. I could have used it on MANY occasions in the past. Thanks for this great video, it's worth ever second of viewing. Best Wishes n Blessings. Keith
I only have the multi-function tester TC1, and can say that the only major weakness of it is in inductors with value in between 10s and 100s uH - often shown false results. Other than that it’s a useful little tool.
Watching this video prompted me to buy the multi tester. I figured for 30 bucks it was worth a shot to try. Well I'll say this, it outperformed an old $300 Beckman capacitance tester I've had for ages. I wanted a tool that would measure ESR and capacitance since I have been repairing defective LCD monitors. They usually fail after a few years due to capacitors aging. Usually you can tell which caps are bad by the domes bulging but not all show physical signs of damage. I had been testing the caps with an O'Scope, signal generator, and calculator but that was a bit tedious. I was pleased to see that Bang_good sold the tester since I do a lot of business with them. So I ordered the device and got it within a week since it was shipped from their US warehouse. Put it through it's paces and was surprised that the device accurately measured an ON Semi LM385 2.5 volt precision reference. I had expected it to see it as an unknown or defective device. It does a pretty good job of measuring most discreet and passive devices except for really low inductance chokes. What really surprised me was the manual which was fairly well written for a device manufactured in and sold from China. My only complaint was the short timeout, 20 secs, of the unit. You can extend it to 25 secs by resoldering a jumper on the circuit board but it isn't worth it for the extra 5 secs. I would have liked a 45 or 60 sec timeout or the option for none at all. Being a retired electronics engineer working in the RF field I have used a sh!tload of sophisticated test gear from network analyzers, noise figure meters, and simple digital voltmeters and can say that this device outperforms units on the market designed for a single purpose such as ESR testing. The test leads shipped with the unit are a nice touch. The parts bag is unnecessary since I would expect one buying the device would have plenty of parts to try it on. I think the set of crimp lugs are used for the selftest; although I used the test leads shorted together as shown in the video. The multi-tester is a worthwhile addition to anyone's cadre of test equipment.
Amazing device, the second one. Testing IC's must mean quite a microprocessor system in there. Testing 37 volt zeners means quite a boost power supply system, and a bunch of fancy controls to do that job. Yes, not bad. Future versions should go with the oled screen and diagrams of the parts, but this one is doing some amazing things so far.
Yes, there's a voltage boosting circuit in the unit to allow testing up to 50V zener diodes. It's a basic unit, not perfect, but good to have laying around for the low cost.
I have the small component tester and it works really well, thanks for the video. The instructions are not very good on how to calibrate the tester, that was helpful. Now I think I will get the IC tester.
bought the TC1, works very well. I would not have been confident to buy it without your review, thanks.. $40 AUD.(Australia). 1 month delivery from Banggood.. Don't use standard shipping if in a hurry.
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I've never seen the TC1 tester. The cheap multifunction testers I am familiar with are all variants on an AVR-based component tester designed by a couple of German college students. BTW the GM328A tester I have will measure very low Rds values. It will also test Q factor of inductors and the equivalent diode voltage drop of MOSFETs and JFETs. I heard that it can also function as a simple AWG up to 25MHz but I don't think the firmware on mine has that function enabled.
Nice vid buddy! I got the T7 tester which is the new version of the TC1 and faster (by a quick blink!)...maybe! I think the T7 tests a few more things too (although not 100% sure).They are well handy little gadgets! Mine was dead on arrival and took a while to charge but once charged it was great. It also arrived in Scotland from China in 7 or 8 days! Faster than other stuff I've got from the same place. I've watched a couple of vids of these things out performing PEAK meters (10 x the price British made ESR meters). Funny eh?Just shows not all junk from China is junk.I'm about to test mine against my Fluke DMM on the things they both do. I'll let you know how it goes.Thanks again for sharing...great vid!
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Great vid! Would be fantastic if this device could plot curve traces for transistors as well, but I guess it would need some kind of built in function generator to do the pulse tests?
I wish there would be an IC tester that gives a bit more info then just part number and "ok"..similar to the transistor tester a better display that shows the pinout of the IC would be nice, as it takes me the most time to google the IC and check datasheets to find out what the IC is and what pinout it has. Just needs a library on a memory chip and when it finds a 555 IC it says that its a timer and a diagramm of the pinout. No special testing needed, just a premade library that holds and shows additional info if it recognizes the chip. And maybe manually updateable to enter new chips.
ChrisLX200 The unit isn't perfect, which is expected for the low cost. I noticed it worked with all the 4 pin optos, and only some of the 6 and 8 pin. That's why I said that. Make sure the IC is in the correct spot. If the IC is listed in the unit, then it should test OK.
Don't put all your trust into the chip tester. I recently bought a batch of chips from China, (lol where else) So to test they were good, I used the larger chip and component tester on the right here. Surprise , it told me they were all faulty. But in fact, when I built a ripple counter with them, they all worked perfectly. It's a handy device, but now I have less confidence in it. Maybe yours is more modern, and bugs have been ironed out. Who knows.
2 questions ! #1 how does one know if the device checked is good or bad and # 2 to recharge the internal battery after you have connected the chord to the unit where do you connect the power chord to recharge , where is the power sourcce to recharge coming from ?
The TC1 is much better unit to check transistors. The other one you have is not a good design since you have to hold, align and level the transistor on the pad. This will be very time consuming and increase chances for errors
Hi, this is the first video I see from your channe..which is nice because I'm assembling my low priced electronics workbench LOL...I'm wondering if any of the 2 testers yow showed does in circuit ESR? I mean the MK-328 or the LCR-TC1. Because the ones that I found are a little expensive
You should be able to test ESR in circuit with both units. The only time you'll have a problem is when the capacitor is in parallel with another component. Thanks for watching! Be sure to check out my "Product Review" video playlist, there are many great deals shown with coupon codes. Thanks!
I've had A TC1 for a few years now, even with the self test or calibration, its slowly becoming more inaccurate testing capacitors. Its consistently 15-30% low compared to my other two full size cap testers. All other readings seem okay though. I've heard there are some counterfeits out there, and have wondered if mine is a counterfeit but if they all look alike, and all come from China, how can you tell?
9:45 Should you perhaps leave the probes connected but isolated, rather than removing them entirely, so the unit can calibrate-out any capacitive effects of those leads?
Possibly, good point. Then you'd have to make sure they don't touch anything, keep them spread apart. On the other hand, if you do that, then you'll affect the testing using only the zif socket. :-)
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Yes, some like to read the test info for a longer period of time. Actually, a button that allows the user to save up to 10 test readings would be a great idea. Thanks for watching!
If it identified the IC, that means it works. If you get "Unknown or Faulty", then it's either not one of the IC's the unit tests, or it's a faulty IC.
Thanks for replying! Are you sure tho? I mean, I can identify a component too, that doesn't mean it's functional - just saying, 'cause there is no instruction manual. Stay safe mate!
Is the pronunciation of Zener as zainer vs zeener country specific? first time I heard it as zainer. Halfway through the video, and I'm going to get that TC1, looks really useful if it's able to identify and characterize all those components reliably. I need to sort things sometimes, and it would be really useful for that. bit too slow for resistors, but that's what DMM' s are for.
Many years ago when I was growing up, I heard many electronics hobbyists pronounce it as "Zainer", so that's how I pronounce it. Just like I was taught(and many millions of others were taught) in the mid/late 80's to early 90's that Nevada was pronounced "Nev-aahh-da".
that's how I pronounce Nevada too, it would be unusual for someone to say Nuh vay da. Got one of these testers on the way, thanks for the link. Some reviews said they received a sample that was not that accurate, reading 75% of the expected value, but hope I get a good one- I'll definitely be a handy item!
@@electronicsNmore so it is a quick test only? a second or two, i am not sure my tests on mosfet and igbt using my fluke dgital meter on diode setting, that when i charge the gate, the resistance bet. the drain and source keeps zero for very long period of time and i can say that the mosfet is perfectly working without leakage, is that correct?
I have been looking for one of those testers that can correctly test a depletion mode FET. I just want it to recognize the device correctly and tell me the pinch-off value of the part. I have purchased 4 different testers and none of them can identify a depletion mode fet correctly. If fact they identify them incorrectly which could be a disaster for someone replacing a part in the field...
I think the only way you can best achieve your objective is by identifying the part via a site like datasheetcatalog.com. Transistor curve tracers are pricey and generally aren't portable. If all you're interested in is pinch off voltage, you could use a constant current source applied to the drain with a 100 ohm resistor between the source and ground, then apply a bias voltage to the gate, and measure the drop across the resistor. However, if you know the part number, you can get all that information from the datasheet. I realize some manufacturers scrub the part numbers from their parts but if it's defective you're in between a rock and a hard place without a valid schematic since no tester is going to help you in that situation.
John, I built my own fet tester back in the late 70's. I still use it today. There are also a lot of older testers that can properly test a depletion mode fet like the HeathKit and the B&K testers. . The point I was making is that the new testers cannot recognize; much less test; a depletion mode fet. . As far as your tentative design goes; if you use a current limited power supply to limit the maximum drain current; there is no need to have a source resistor. Just an in-line 0-10 ma meter. The voltage from gate to ground when the meter goes to zero is the pinch off voltage. I would use a 9 volt battery and a 1 megohm linear potentiometer to vary the gate to source voltage from zero to -9 VDC.
My "design" was just a kludge at best. I have a tester I built many years ago that uses a constant current source to charge a cap at a 1 ma rate and a comparitor to discharge it so it produces a pretty linear low current ramp that I used to test semiconductors with. It would supply the ramp to the DUT and would also supply a buffered output to an O'scope in xy mode. It did a decent job of in-circuit testing. I still have it but don't use it anymore since I'm retired and spend most of my time designing gear for my amateur radio hobby. W2AEW has a lot of excellent videos on testing devices and I think I saw one he had using a staircase waveform generator to create the response curves for FETs and Bipolar devices. Before I got the multitester I had been using his technique for testing cap ESR. Most of his vids deal with the ham radio hobby. Btw, I still have most of the Heathkit gear I built back in their heyday. I have a tube based RF signal generator that needs an hour to stabilize as opposed to the DDS Arduino based source I'm currently working on. And it looks like they are attempting to bring the brand back since there is a Heathkit website.
Yes; I agree; I would like to see them come back also; along with Knight Kit and Eico. I am 70 years old, so I have been around in the industry for a long time myself. I used to leave my tube gear turned on 24-7 to minimize problems with drift. . Going back to my original comment; if you ever find a chinese component tester that can also test a depletion mode fet correctly; please let me know....
LOL I'm 70 as well. Started as a tech at the age of 16 for Berkey Photo down on 14st in lower Manhattan. I remember Knight and Eico. (Lafayette Radio was one of the first chains to bite the dust.) Right now I'm having fun designing RF gear based on the Arduino Uno. I usually post my endeavors on facebook as John Brandolini if you are interested. I'm currently designing a benchtop DDS signal generator based on the AD9850. The project requires interfacing the output to a geekcreit $9 frequency counter so I am in the process of designing an RF front end for it.
Hello ,my tc1 shows up resistor on the display when i put a triac in for test , Is this right ? Cant see on your video or in manual why this would happen , Cheers Gareth
@@electronicsNmore Vu Bt a08 600c Mar 1005 When this is inserted it show resistor on the display ,tried plugging it in all ways. Also Mrc Bta12 600bw C7 43 This also shows up on display as resistor
@@electronicsNmore ok guys not to worry ,got money back now and will try it out with some different components in the near future ,pretty sure somethings not right though . Thanks again
Wise @sses aren't tolerated on this channel. They get added to a special list on my computer, that list is "Never assist these viewers with questions if asking for help".
@@electronicsNmore You sounded like you pronounced it like "zaner" and I've always heard it pronounced "zee ner". Really, that's ok. I probably won't ask you for help , but keep on pronouncing things like you do. I will probably come back and give you some views and annoy you on occasion if you don't mind. ;-). Maybe I can help you sometime with some electronics assistance.
@@yurif74 Thanks for telling me. The new link posted has this info: It can test 74HC series, 74LS series, CD4000 series, HEF400 series, 4500 series, operational amplifiers, interface class chip, optocoupler transistor automatic identification, regulator value recognition, and so on. It is built-in more than 1300 kinds of various types of chip
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