IC tester Options

[chromesphere]

Hey guys, been thinking about these devices lately and how absolutely awesome it would be to have one around for testing & identifying ICs.  Theres obviously no sure way to know if an ic is what it says even through testing electronically, but I would imagine it would certainly help weed out a lot of fake ICs that are going around, atleast some sort of preliminary test.

The main problem though is price, they are pretty dam expensive.  The ABI linearmaster goes for about $1000  and so far its one of the 'cheaper' ones I've found that's still professional.   It can ID a decent range of ICs but unfortunately no bbd's.  Of course you wouldn't touch one of those cheapies on eBay (its probably using fake chips? lol).  Are there any hobby level chip testers around that are still relatively functional and trustworthy?  I know next to nothing on this topic.

Edit: Something like this I guess except not $1000+:

Cheers
Paul

[Leevibe]

That's pretty cool Paul. I wouldn't need something like that but I would definitely feel good about buying ICs from someone who was testing what he sells. Yeah, $1000 is steep. I wonder if any of the arduino hobbyists have come up with a board and software that could do this? I ask that as if I know anything about arduino.

[selfdestroyer]

That's pretty cool Paul. I wouldn't need something like that but I would definitely feel good about buying ICs from someone who was testing what he sells. Yeah, $1000 is steep. I wonder if any of the arduino hobbyists have come up with a board and software that could do this? I ask that as if I know anything about arduino.

Funny you say that... I have been watching this project for awhile. I will ask the developer if hes looking at doing ICs also. As of right now it just identifies passives but I think he is working on a test sequence also. wow now that Im looking at the thread again, it looks like there has been some cool stuff added in the changelog.
http://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=39537&p=196065#p196065

also found this
https://github.com/DanNelson/Arduino-TTL-IC-Tester
Cody