ebay $35 transistor tester...anyone try one of these?

[miter53]

Has anyone had any experience with one of these?

[culturejam]

Looks like a Peak Atlas DCA55 clone. Nice.

[Haberdasher]

link?

[miter53]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-12864-LCD-Transistor-Tester-Diode-Triode-Capacitance-ESR-Meter-MOS-PNP-NPN-/221342035862?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3389036f96

[miter53]

Couldn't resist...bought one. BTW, way down at the bottom, "note: no test cable include, need you make by yourself."

[mattlee0037]

Let us know how it works. Looks pretty sweet.

[rullywowr]

Thanks for sharing, looks cool.

[blearyeyes]

Couldn't resist...bought one. BTW, way down at the bottom, "note: no test cable include, need you make by yourself."

I couldn't resist either..the clip on banana plug probes are cheap online. I got a whole set of 8 different ones for like 5 bucks...
Looks like we're gonna have to brush up on our Chinese reading though. he he...

[chromesphere]

I hope its not like the cheap Chinese sig gen I got on ebay.  I was going to put it in the bin but thought what would be pretty insulting to the bin. Failed entirely at its primary function.

Let us know how you go, hope it works out!

[gjcamann]

You could also make your own with an AVR.
http://www.fromorbit.com/2012/01/avr-transistor-tester-component-identifier/

[jubal81]

Just ordered one of these. $18. From the pics it looks like it measure JFET pinchoff and IDSS. Keeping my fingers crossed.


Here it is on DaBay

[EBRAddict]

I've owned two eBay component testers. The component ID on both of them was pretty good, as were the pinout diagrams. The capacitance and resistance measurements were close enough.

The diode and transistor measurements were never good. One tester displays "B" which I assume is Beta and the other hFE. Neither of them were in the same ballpark. I could see some leeway for Vce or collector current, but nope. Also, they appeared to have very limited resolution. A batch of SS9018 I was measuring had the same four discrete values, but nothing in between. Also, neither component tester matched my $35 mastech NPN gain measurement. The leakage current measurement also suffered from the same low resolution.

I put the hFE and beta test up against a DCA75 Pro, neither eBay tester matched anywhere on the hFE/Ic or hFE/Vce curve from the DCA.