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Testing Germanium Transistors @ 5V resistor value question.

Started by rullywowr, May 08, 2013, 06:31:20 PM

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rullywowr

Hello,

I have this brainstorm on making a deluxe Transistor Gain Tester and I am starting to work on it.  My question is what values will I need for the two resistors if I run the circuit off of 5V (regulated) instead of 9V?  I am racking my brain trying to figure it out.

From R.G. Keen's site about testing transistors:
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/ffselect.htm

My brainstorm idea is as follows:

ATMEGA328P controlled (arduino based and tested but will be on the same PCB once program is finalized)
16x2 character backlit lcd! whoo hoo
"Reset" button for starting a new test, and a slider for testing the "actual" gain.

The procedure will be to put your transistor in the socket and press reset.  
The microcontroller will sample the voltage until it stabilizes - displaying volts and leakage on LCD while you wait.
Once voltage stabilizes, the screen will say "ready to test actual gain"
User will slide DPDT switch which will close the current to the base and also trigger the microcontroller to perform the next step.  
Device will sample voltage - Once voltage stabilizes, the screen will say DONE!  and display the leakage and gain.  
Press RESET to start again.

I am pretty confident I can get the code working well in an arduino test platform but I was hoping to run the transistor circuit off of 5V if possible with the correct resistor values.

Any ideas?

I suppose I could run the circuit off of 9V regulated and then step that down to 5V for the microcontroller but it would be cool if everything could be 5V.  Thanks in advance

I was even thinking if this works well that I could add a thermal printer which would print out the values on paper and you can stick it to the transistor.



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