That’s a great price. I originally got one of these about five months ago just really to identify the gate, drain, and source of a N-Channel J-FET that I am using to develop a guitar internal preamp as opposed to an op-amp. These are also amazing at giving you the voltage of the gate-drain, drain-source, and source-gate junctions and checking to see if the components are within tolerance. Thanks for the informative video.
Shango, this unit can be calibrated by shunting pins 1,2,3 together as a short and it will open up a self diagnostic mode that walks you through the process! Check it out....... John
Can't believe you have waited so long to get one of these testers. I remember that video where you had such a tough time identifying a 4.7uH inductor. Anyway, big fan of your video's.
I have been using this tester for a couple of years now, it is the best little tester you can imagine. And dirt cheap. BTW it is more accurate than you think. It also identifies FET.
Wow. I've never seen a 'point-to-point' wired transistor radio, with SOCKETS, no less! Kudos for changing transistors in a hot circuit! I can't believe you haven't frapped one yet!
I have had one of these for several years now. Last year I picked up a bulk pack of new parts and began sorting, so to speed things up, I split a aligator jumper and soldered the two halves and soldered to the underside inputs. Now it is easy to test components both in circuit and in bulk by simply clipping onto the legs. I could easily do another if I wanted 3 inputs but so far 2 have been plenty.
I got one in kit form off ebay for $15 and it's fantastic. It tests resistors, transistors, capacitors and a lot more and it's very accurate. The cap tester is great, it gives value, Vloss and esr.
awesome video I use a much older version of this tester bought about five years ago it does most things your review tester does except ESR inductance and FET's (build mine into a box with proper flying leads for testing components) like you say useful for identifying semi conductors. Ps love that mini valve tester, hope you do a video on it! would love to see it!
I own one of these, its an absolute godsend. I do modern TV repair at the age of 19 with nothing but youtube for education lol Make yourself a little minigrabber set to put in the socket, it'll keep from killing the socket with thick leaded components A QR code linking to this video might be a good idea too
Trap for young players: The bottom row of pins are NOT in parallel with the top. The markings are beneath the socket (Chinese folks have special sight powers and can see through the socket.)
Great review Shango! It nice to see it get put through a wide variety of components. I have seen those up on for sale, and that looks especially handy for odd ball parts that I run across when harvesting parts out of old chassis. It's probably not super accurate but like you said for checking transistor pinout and as a reference it would be ideal. That in itself would be enough of a reason to pick one up.
Great video. Those testers are amazing. I also really like the EMC tube tester. They made similar units into the early 1980s.i have a 1940s model that has sockets for 4, 5, and 6 pin tubes.
I have one of these, have had for years, and I don't know what I would do without it! To increase the usability, I added a couple of crock-clips by splitting a jumper wire in half and soldering the open ends to the bottom of the SMD reader. Works great and I needn't worry about damaging the socket by thick leads. I have considered adding a 3rd however I haven't run into a spot where I needed 3 as most transistors and FETs will fit the reader.
The model I have has the three bottom left pins marked as KAA ( cathode, anode, anode) and is used for testing Zener diodes. It gives specs of 0.01v - 4.50v in the transistor test area and 0.01v - 30.0v in the Zener test area. It might be worth checking your tester out for a similar function. Mine will flash an LED during testing in the "normal" area, and keep it lit steady (connected positive to cathode) when in the Zener test area just to give you a quick idea of whether or not your tester works in a similar way. Daniu model TC-1 cased.
They are very nice little testers, along with the transistor identification, they are nice for identifying really small components like the resistors or capacitors in the Bang Good radio kits, where it can be hard to see the bands on the resistor ow the writing on the capacitor. Accuracy, yeah its a ball park kind of thing, but we will see. I am going to take one to my friend's lab, and we are going to compare it with some Tektronix and HP lab grade component testers, I will make a video of that.
I've got a whole cabinet of those "Little Devils". They've sat so long they all pretty much went bad. That's a neat little tester. to bad they're not on a case.
Oooooohh... I want one of those little tube testers! I lost mine many years ago; I think it was a Heathkit-type with the tube chart on a scrolling chart that you turn the knob to get to the tube you want. Flea-bay time.
01:42 regarding the difficulty in identifying the pinout of transistors, a trick I know is to: -Take a multimeter/ohmmeter, put it to 20kohms -Measure the resistance between each pin of the transistor -The BaseEmitter resistance under direct polarisation will be higher than the BaseCollector resistance under direct polarisation by a bit (usually 1kohm-2kohms) Another trick to identify the BE and BC junctions is to remeber that the forward voltage of the BE junction is higher than that of the BC junction by a couple milivolts. This trick works on every BJT, but for JFET's and MOSFET's you'll have to use the MTester or a catalogue. You probably already knew these tricks but maybe others don't so now they do ! :)
as i said in a previous post these soviet components are a fantastic resource, but not just transistors the metal can and ceramic ic's are great too, if you want lf357 or lm108's the metal can soviet ones are way cheaper than NTE's equivalent, and they are not fake unlike every lf357 ive seen from china suppliers.
The 700 ohm resistor was 10% so it could be anywhere plus or minus 10% of 700, which is 70, so the acceptable range is from 630 to 770 so the 684.8 is probably quite accurate.
I had that exact tube tester. I bought it at a radio swap. It worked really well thou the build quality of the case was not good. The front panel flexed when you pulled tubes in and out of it and eventually the plastic bosses where the panel screws into the case broke. That said it was really really good to keep on the bench used no space at all and as I recall it’s results where normally spot on with the Hickok my friend had. Good score Shango must admit I miss that tester perhaps I should scan the fleabay thou some boso will probably want 50 bucks for one. I paid 10 bucks for the one I had say 10 years ago New in box
That tester is based of a german project. Homepage here: www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/AVR_Transistortester Also if you short the 3 pins you can do calibration, it will ask for a 100nF (0.1uF) capacitor.
You got the pinout wrong: the lower pins are ( 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 ), the silkscreen is mostly obscured by that ZIF socket, but it is still readable if you squint real hard. I share your sentiment about this little gadget, so useful when you use a lot of old or harvested components.
I have the EMC 213 version that I bought in the mid 1970’s I think I paid $10.00 for it. And yes it’s a very good tube tester I had tested many tubes on it and still do in very rare circumstances. Never tested transistors with it tho I used the radioshaft transistor tester for that back in the 1970’s I still have it the sticker on the box has $14.95 printed on it. Good video.
Hey Brad's here. These testers are everywhere. Amazon, with a case! www.amazon.com/uxcell-Transistor-Capacitance-Inductance-Acrylic/dp/B01N806SBP/ref=sr_1_18?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1513732914&sr=1-18&keywords=lcr+meter
i always come across old transistors and late 60's to late 70's jellybean parts and always wanted a tester like this to verify the parts i find also i assume it will figure out voltage regulators? ( i usually come across the to220 kind )
Voltage regulators are integrated circuits with many internal components so no, probably not. I just connected my little $30 tester up to a LM317 and a LM7805, it has no idea what they are
As usual Shango your method of showing us noobies diagnosis is unequalled. A lot of us learners that you are converting don't have the access or are very limited to the equipment as it takes years to amass and learn every instrument as technology advances. If you have time I would like you to show us how to calibrate this unit using your fluke or what ever you have, even a tricky dicky meter using a resistor. If you trust your equipment then that's what you go with right? Keep up the great work. Gem
Not sure if you know this but if you hold button down for about 10 seconds it goes into calibration mode, used it on mine to zero out the clip leads I was using on it
Wonderful device. I have a similar one with a plastic case in my technician tool case. Small value capacitors, less than 25 pf, show as defective when they aren't really bad though.
Just for fun I tested a bi color LED (3 leads) interesting light show. Also tested some high impedance headphones. I was expecting it to read as an inductor, but it read as a resistor. Interesting little sounds from the headphones too.
I bought one of these on eBay, it came with a Plexiglas case. I love it. I like that small tube tester. I have a Mercury tube tester that's a smaller size, but not quite as small as the one that you showed in the video.
Maybe you could test the accuracy against a know good meter rather than just writing it off. The 700 ohm resistor that measured at 684.8 was within the 10% tolerance of the part (630-770 ohm). It was actually within 3%.
Jees all the comments saying these are sold out, these friggin testers are everywhere. Just go to Ebay or Amazon. There's also several dozen different models and designs between $7 - $50, don't need the exact one that Shango is using. They all are based on very similar firmware.
I guess the point shango is making is that Banggood stuff is usually sold with some sort of quality guarantee. All the kits off Banggood I've had usually have solid community reviews, and there's people at Banggood who actually test and use this stuff. The thing with eBay etc is that unless it's something gold-standard, you can be uncertain about what you're getting. Banggood is a little more centralized, and a little more accountable for anything that flubs a boner.
@@shango066 I found my box. I'm not sure you will be interested, all the transistors are very old. But if you need any of them, I can send you a set for free.
Chris The US ones might be leaky so they "fake" a higher gain value and this tester doesn't measure leakage separately. Either that or they genuinely are higher gain.
Bought one loved it for 2 days now everything is unknown part. That's what I hate about China zero quality control. Would rather pay a bit more and have it last for over 20 testings
I have one of them, I love it!
I'm color blind so picking new resistors is so easy now.
That tube tester is a real beauty, great score there.
That’s a great price. I originally got one of these about five months ago just really to identify the gate, drain, and source of a N-Channel J-FET that I am using to develop a guitar internal preamp as opposed to an op-amp. These are also amazing at giving you the voltage of the gate-drain, drain-source, and source-gate junctions and checking to see if the components are within tolerance. Thanks for the informative video.
Shango, this unit can be calibrated by shunting pins 1,2,3 together as a short and it will open up a self diagnostic mode that walks you through the process! Check it out.......
John
Can't believe you have waited so long to get one of these testers. I remember that video where you had such a tough time identifying a 4.7uH inductor. Anyway, big fan of your video's.
I have been using this tester for a couple of years now, it is the best little tester you can imagine. And dirt cheap. BTW it is more accurate than you think. It also identifies FET.
Wow. I've never seen a 'point-to-point' wired transistor radio, with SOCKETS, no less! Kudos for changing transistors in a hot circuit! I can't believe you haven't frapped one yet!
Very nice, very practical component test device. That Zenith radio with the plug in transistors is amazing.
I have had one of these for several years now. Last year I picked up a bulk pack of new parts and began sorting, so to speed things up, I split a aligator jumper and soldered the two halves and soldered to the underside inputs. Now it is easy to test components both in circuit and in bulk by simply clipping onto the legs. I could easily do another if I wanted 3 inputs but so far 2 have been plenty.
I got one in kit form off ebay for $15 and it's fantastic. It tests resistors, transistors, capacitors and a lot more and it's very accurate. The cap tester is great, it gives value, Vloss and esr.
Amazing stuff for the price. Imagine what it would cost to have this kind of meter in the 90s or 80s
awesome video I use a much older version of this tester bought about five years ago it does most things your review tester does except ESR inductance and FET's (build mine into a box with proper flying leads for testing components) like you say useful for identifying semi conductors. Ps love that mini valve tester, hope you do a video on it! would love to see it!
I have a the latest version of this and I totally agree with you, a really useful device to identify components. definitely never regretted buying it.
I own one of these, its an absolute godsend. I do modern TV repair at the age of 19 with nothing but youtube for education lol
Make yourself a little minigrabber set to put in the socket, it'll keep from killing the socket with thick leaded components
A QR code linking to this video might be a good idea too
QR code where?
Trap for young players: The bottom row of pins are NOT in parallel with the top.
The markings are beneath the socket (Chinese folks have special sight powers and can see through the socket.)
we see bottom row it's marked on the back 2223333 thx when I get mine from Banggood
Great review Shango! It nice to see it get put through a wide variety of components. I have seen those up on for sale, and that looks especially handy for odd ball parts that I run across when harvesting parts out of old chassis. It's probably not super accurate but like you said for checking transistor pinout and as a reference it would be ideal.
That in itself would be enough of a reason to pick one up.
That mini tester is stunning.
Great video. Those testers are amazing. I also really like the EMC tube tester. They made similar units into the early 1980s.i have a 1940s model that has sockets for 4, 5, and 6 pin tubes.
I have one of these, have had for years, and I don't know what I would do without it! To increase the usability, I added a couple of crock-clips by splitting a jumper wire in half and soldering the open ends to the bottom of the SMD reader. Works great and I needn't worry about damaging the socket by thick leads. I have considered adding a 3rd however I haven't run into a spot where I needed 3 as most transistors and FETs will fit the reader.
Oh forgot to mention, the leads allow you to check components in circuit if unpowered.
The model I have has the three bottom left pins marked as KAA ( cathode, anode, anode) and is used for testing Zener diodes. It gives specs of 0.01v - 4.50v in the transistor test area and 0.01v - 30.0v in the Zener test area. It might be worth checking your tester out for a similar function. Mine will flash an LED during testing in the "normal" area, and keep it lit steady (connected positive to cathode) when in the Zener test area just to give you a quick idea of whether or not your tester works in a similar way. Daniu model TC-1 cased.
What an interesting little device I had no idea that it existed thank you.
Will never know now whether she's just going to be using the trailer in Texas ?
Have the same concern. We will never know. So sad.
They are very nice little testers, along with the transistor identification, they are nice for identifying really small components like the resistors or capacitors in the Bang Good radio kits, where it can be hard to see the bands on the resistor ow the writing on the capacitor. Accuracy, yeah its a ball park kind of thing, but we will see. I am going to take one to my friend's lab, and we are going to compare it with some Tektronix and HP lab grade component testers, I will make a video of that.
I love my tester! Allowed me to free up some bench space!
This video had absolutely no right being as interesting as it turned out to be. Thanks for the link, I'll be buying one this week :)
Just bought one today from eBay 🙂 it's working great..I tested some diodes.. capacitor.. resistor
The radio surgeon, with gloves now! Great video, very informative. Thanks
I've got a whole cabinet of those "Little Devils". They've sat so long they all pretty much went bad. That's a neat little tester. to bad they're not on a case.
Good video, thanks. Love the micro valve tester!
Oooooohh... I want one of those little tube testers! I lost mine many years ago; I think it was a Heathkit-type with the tube chart on a scrolling chart that you turn the knob to get to the tube you want. Flea-bay time.
Handy li'l thing! Aught to pick one up myself eventually, I have lots of parts!
That's a beautiful little tube-tester too!
I love you're channel .always a awesome vids
01:42 regarding the difficulty in identifying the pinout of transistors, a trick I know is to:
-Take a multimeter/ohmmeter, put it to 20kohms
-Measure the resistance between each pin of the transistor
-The BaseEmitter resistance under direct polarisation will be higher than the BaseCollector resistance under direct polarisation by a bit (usually 1kohm-2kohms)
Another trick to identify the BE and BC junctions is to remeber that the forward voltage of the BE junction is higher than that of the BC junction by a couple milivolts.
This trick works on every BJT, but for JFET's and MOSFET's you'll have to use the MTester or a catalogue.
You probably already knew these tricks but maybe others don't so now they do ! :)
as i said in a previous post these soviet components are a fantastic resource, but not just transistors the metal can and ceramic ic's are great too, if you want lf357 or lm108's the metal can soviet ones are way cheaper than NTE's equivalent, and they are not fake unlike every lf357 ive seen from china suppliers.
The 700 ohm resistor was 10% so it could be anywhere plus or minus 10% of 700, which is 70, so the acceptable range is from 630 to 770 so the 684.8 is probably quite accurate.
I had that exact tube tester. I bought it at a radio swap. It worked really well thou the build quality of the case was not good. The front panel flexed when you pulled tubes in and out of it and eventually the plastic bosses where the panel screws into the case broke. That said it was really really good to keep on the bench used no space at all and as I recall it’s results where normally spot on with the Hickok my friend had. Good score Shango must admit I miss that tester perhaps I should scan the fleabay thou some boso will probably want 50 bucks for one. I paid 10 bucks for the one I had say 10 years ago New in box
I use this all the time, what they need to do is offer a little cabinet to mount it in...I also have the same Zenith , still plays good.
they do a clear perspex case to house it in
15:30 - Is it wise to insert transistors while the radio is powered on?
Just what I was looking for!
Have you done a vid on the micro tube tester? Nice find.
That tester is based of a german project. Homepage here: www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/AVR_Transistortester
Also if you short the 3 pins you can do calibration, it will ask for a 100nF (0.1uF) capacitor.
I will ask for a cap higher (!) than 100nF.
1959Berre yes you're right.I didn't saw the little ">".Sorry
Muito bom comprei um estou aprendendo a usar obrigado pelas dicas
Very good stuff here, shango.
I'm gonna' hafta' order one or three of those.
And: I WANT THAT MICRO TUBE TESTER!! ;-)
great video you always find the best goodies to have fun with all the best happy holidays and a very happy and healthy new year to you
When made tv shop that was closing,you a mentioned the previous video you did I year ,did you put it on your web site utube?
I have one of the Ebay ones... mine was 20$ shipped, and has a case and color screen. Those are a nice fun thing for small components.
I just bourt one of thease tools there so good for what thay are did yours not come with the clear plastic case ?
I bought one after seeing EEVBLOG's video about it. I showed it off at work now all the bench techs have one x3
You got the pinout wrong: the lower pins are ( 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 ), the silkscreen is mostly obscured by that ZIF socket, but it is still readable if you squint real hard. I share your sentiment about this little gadget, so useful when you use a lot of old or harvested components.
Another interesting video!!! 😃
I have the EMC 213 version that I bought in the mid 1970’s I think I paid $10.00 for it. And yes it’s a very good tube tester I had tested many tubes on it and still do in very rare circumstances. Never tested transistors with it tho I used the radioshaft transistor tester for that back in the 1970’s I still have it the sticker on the box has $14.95 printed on it.
Good video.
Great video. Tried to buy one. They've sold out. The power of a Shango endorsement, I guess.
Hey Brad's here. These testers are everywhere. Amazon, with a case! www.amazon.com/uxcell-Transistor-Capacitance-Inductance-Acrylic/dp/B01N806SBP/ref=sr_1_18?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1513732914&sr=1-18&keywords=lcr+meter
beautiful machine at the end
that tube tester at the end is pretty,did you review it?
Did you have a chance to check its accuracy against a calibrated meter?
7:30 - I would think it could detect the polarity of electrolytics?
Love the "TFXTDOL" ZIF socket (as opposed to TEXTOOL) :D
Mine is a GM320A v1.20. The socket pins on mine are labeled 1232123 top and bottom.
i always come across old transistors and late 60's to late 70's jellybean parts and always wanted a tester like this to verify the parts i find
also i assume it will figure out voltage regulators? ( i usually come across the to220 kind )
Voltage regulators are integrated circuits with many internal components so no, probably not. I just connected my little $30 tester up to a LM317 and a LM7805, it has no idea what they are
So you wouldn't use this to find a matching transistor pair?
Thanks to your video, they are now sold out!
EBay - www.ebay.com/itm/LCR-T4-ESR-Transistor-Tester-Diode-Triode-Capacitance-SCR-Inductance-Mega328/161932407715?hash=item25b3ec73a3:g:PVkAAOSwj85Zgv5G
Why do you wear the rubber gloves? Are there health saftey issues with the electronics?
As usual Shango your method of showing us noobies diagnosis is unequalled. A lot of us learners that you are converting don't have the access or are very limited to the equipment as it takes years to amass and learn every instrument as technology advances. If you have time I would like you to show us how to calibrate this unit using your fluke or what ever you have, even a tricky dicky meter using a resistor. If you trust your equipment then that's what you go with right? Keep up the great work. Gem
Nice Tester :-)
A great little tester but the cheap as anything socket on mine was stuffed within a week of testing different components.
That is awesome, and now I have to have one. I can see it as being very valuable for both troubleshooting and matching transistors. Great video
I bought one---it's on the way.
how do you connect tube sockets on this contraption?? lol
Not sure if you know this but if you hold button down for about 10 seconds it goes into calibration mode, used it on mine to zero out the clip leads I was using on it
Working batteries don't get recognized from this device but a dead one shows up as a diode.
Wonderful device. I have a similar one with a plastic case in my technician tool case. Small value capacitors, less than 25 pf, show as defective when they aren't really bad though.
No doubt about it, ,this thing is rather useful.
Good reVIEW. eYe Like it. BTW, you are really good, one-handed. That's interesting :)
Nifty little gadget, probably should get one for myself just for fun
I have one of these and its great.
Just for fun I tested a bi color LED (3 leads) interesting light show. Also tested some high impedance headphones. I was expecting it to read as an inductor, but it read as a resistor. Interesting little sounds from the headphones too.
What is the model number of the EMC tube tester? I can see “Model 2**. It might be 211 or it might be 24.
I bought one of these from amazon and it arrived broken. The corner of the LCD was cracked. What's the name of the tester like this that you use now?
I just ordered a couple of clear cases for mine and a friends from eBay.
I also have it this is amazing
Great video! I wonder what it shows with a darlington, an SCR or a UJT???
With darlingtons it just shows a single bipolar transistor with a very high gain. Have not tried mine with SCRs or unijunction transistors though.
Thanks..
Mine can see SCRs and Triacs just fine, I have a slightly different model than Shango though
LCR-T4 12864LCD ESR SCR Meter Transistor Tester Sold Out Currently on Banggood!
I bought one of these on eBay, it came with a Plexiglas case. I love it.
I like that small tube tester. I have a Mercury tube tester that's a smaller size, but not quite as small as the one that you showed in the video.
AHH COOL GOT A LINK M8?
Synthematix hee you go: r.ebay.com/t75OaP
Synthematix Just search ebay for "LCR-T4 Tester".
Defo getting one, but the one with the housing to protect it.
Maybe you could test the accuracy against a know good meter rather than just writing it off. The 700 ohm resistor that measured at 684.8 was within the 10% tolerance of the part (630-770 ohm). It was actually within 3%.
That tube tester is great, NIB too hard to beat that.
Nice
where did you get those old soviet transistors?
Hi love your videos
Jees all the comments saying these are sold out, these friggin testers are everywhere. Just go to Ebay or Amazon. There's also several dozen different models and designs between $7 - $50, don't need the exact one that Shango is using. They all are based on very similar firmware.
I guess the point shango is making is that Banggood stuff is usually sold with some sort of quality guarantee. All the kits off Banggood I've had usually have solid community reviews, and there's people at Banggood who actually test and use this stuff. The thing with eBay etc is that unless it's something gold-standard, you can be uncertain about what you're getting. Banggood is a little more centralized, and a little more accountable for anything that flubs a boner.
Any new links as to where to get one of these? Thanks Shango
Can this device test voltage regulators?
The Russian “nuke power plant” shaped ones are cool …
So, those additional 1's are mostly for components with wider spread leads. That makes sense.
I have it, I bought it from Alibaba It is also available in our local market shops.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I have a few kilograms of these transistors (1950-1980xx) in my garage :)
Send me a kg
@@shango066 I'll see what models I have. I think you will be interested in MP26. This is the low noise version of the MP39-42.
@@shango066 I found my box. I'm not sure you will be interested, all the transistors are very old. But if you need any of them, I can send you a set for free.
@@shango066 czcams.com/video/2NerfS-evLU/video.html
@@EmiHappens woo that sounds interesting
The Putin transistors measure with a lower gain than the American but they seem to work fine in circuit.
Chris The US ones might be leaky so they "fake" a higher gain value and this tester doesn't measure leakage separately. Either that or they genuinely are higher gain.
Putin? More like Brezhnev.
MP transistors are the early era 1960-1975. Later they were released only for repair in small quantities.
Bought one loved it for 2 days now everything is unknown part. That's what I hate about China zero quality control. Would rather pay a bit more and have it last for over 20 testings
If you bork the zif socket you can take it apart and restore it. I have done it to mine just like yours.
will it check faulty component
Amazon has them also