Transistor curve tracer this is the arduino sketch for a transistor curve tracer. This video shows an example of performing a simple component test curve tracer on an oscilloscope. Curve tracer adapter being used to produce family of curves on scope. Engineers typically use oscilloscopes to view plots of voltageversustime. If you want a curve tracer, best get old tektronix 575576577. Posters report no firmware in the tested unit, and a possible design fault in the reversebias network.
Bjt transistor iv curve tracer adapter pcb board xy oscilloscopes. Simple component tester using oscilloscope octopus. This curve tracer is build around microchips pic18f4550 mcu and it use simple windows based gui application to plot captured data of a. As the aa cells are discharged the voltages vary, the software compensates by using. Curve tracer is an electronic test instrument to analyze the characteristics of transistors and other discrete semiconductors. The top countries of suppliers are united states, china, and india, from which the percentage of curve tracer supply is 2%, 94%, and 1% respectively. This section will add gate base drive in order to examine transistors.
Pchosted affordable curve tracer power electronics. A software program, ivpc, is provided with each daystar ds iv curve tracer. Transistor tester, drok mosfet transistor capacitor tester, mega328 npn pnp transistor diode resistor inductor capacitance mos scr esr meter automatic checker detector 4. And, also the base current source increases the base current ib in equal incremental steps for each consecutive voltage sweep with the steps synchronized to the beginning of each collector voltage sweep. The other big part is a dual channel oscilloscope with xy mode, or like my version i used a cheap arduino pro mini and a display, it is more then enough for a basic operation. Yes ferrite chokes, ou can use snapon split chokes or regular ones since you. This curve tracer uses only 6 transistors and produces a beautiful curve display on an oscilloscope in xy mode. This item is only the board dont include the power supply and the cables to connect between this board and oscilloscopes are not included in. This plot is very useful in device characterization because it reflects on the quality of the emitterbase junction while the basecollector bias, v bc, is kept at a constant. This homebrew curve tracer allows you a quick check of the voltage current characteristic of any part.
A semiconductor curve tracer also known as a semiconductor parameter analyzer is a specialised piece of electronic test equipment used to analyze the characteristics of discrete semiconductor devices such as diodes, transistors, and thyristors. This is a tektronix type 575 transistor curve tracer. But, based on the few comments on their forum, it may have some issues. Tektronix type 575 transistor curve tracer bmi surplus, inc. Discrete semiconductors such as transistors and diodes. This is simple usb port base curve tracer for npn transistors.
The following are some of the uses to which the curve tracer can be put. How to use curve tracer circuit there are two simple things to keep in mind the x axis represents the voltage and the y axis represents the current. This voltage is then applied to the collector or drain of the transistor. A 16bit word needs to be written to the dac to set the analog voltage. Using the agilent 54621a digital oscilloscope as a curve. Analog discovery bjt curve tracer program blogs virtual. The sweep voltage generator applies vs with a time period repetitively to the transistor.
Published in issue 386, february 2009 order from elektormain pcb, bare, 080068. Collectoremitter saturation voltage is the vc below which an increase in ib does not cause an increase in ic. This practical instrument can be used to measure and record the characteristic curves of npn and pnp bipolar transistors, n and pchannel jfets, and n and pchannel mosfets. Hoilzontal position step off transistor curve immediate display of the characteristic curves of any tran sistor or fet on a conventional oscilloscope. The strip is useful for mounting transistors, regulators and other devices for testing. The simple circuit shown is often called an octopus i dont know why. It provides up to 30 v test voltage at up to 1 a test current from true voltage and current source drive amplifiers. How to use an oscilloscope and signal generator as a. Xy signals are plotted on an oscilloscope to visualise the characteristic curve for the component. Inside, theres some pitting and buildup, and some mildew visible around the crt socket. One way to do this is to use a curve tracer, which plots the current vs. This board is an adapter for the oscilloscope, user can use this board to generate iv curve of transistor on existing oscilloscope. Its not that i use a curve tracer that much, but if you want to categorize or really measure the parameters of a discrete component, there is.
How do i test a bipolar transistor for collectoremitter. The measurement is taken with specified values of ic and ib. The circuit is based on an r8c microcontroller, which transfers the measurement data to a windows application program via usb. On an oscilloscope, probing the x axis is quite simple the voltage is as is, i. Stoneslice has shared a curve tracer tutorial on youtube that uses an x y mode oscilloscope to test components and their characteristics. Transistor curve tracer kit on ebay page 2 eevblog. Elektor did a usblinked curve tracer in early 2009. To learn how to manipulate the analog discovery 2 and waveforms to work as a semiconductor curve tracer, head over to my instructable. Stoneslice has shared a curve tracer tutorial on youtube that uses. This curve tracer is build around microchips pic18f4550 mcu and it does not need driver installations andor any complex software installations. Curve tracer iv curve tracer automated curve tracer.
All we need is an oscilloscope with an x and an y input. Vds channel 1, upper trace is a 0 to 8v sinusoid from the function generator. To learn how to manipulate the analog discovery 2 and waveforms to work as a semiconductor curve tracer, head over to. However, keysight scopes are also capable of displaying voltageversusvoltage by using their xy mode. Based on an oscilloscope, the device also contains voltage and current sources that can be used to stimulate the device under test dut. Tektronix 575 mod 122c curve tracer restoration project. The keysight curve tracer power device analyzers are the best solutions for power device evaluation. A while back i picked up a tektronix 575 mod 122c transistor curve tracer from craigslist and just started digging into it. This menudriven software controls the iv curve tracer, transfers iv curve data to the computer for storage, and includes a toolset to manipulate, normalize, display and analyze iv curves. There should be two x10 probes connected to ch1 and ch2, the same as for oscilloscope operation. See more ideas about arduino, arduino projects, raspberry pi. Displays the dynamic characteristic curves of both npn and pnp transistors. Tektronix curve tracers offer power and versatility to test the dc characteristics of semiconductor devices. This curvetracer uses only 6 transistors and produces a beautiful curve display on an oscilloscope in xy mode.
How to use an oscilloscope as a curve tra cer engineers typically use oscilloscopes to view plots of voltageversustime. Bjt transistor iv curve tracer adapter pcb board xy. Pc curve tracer operation basically, the curve tracer software uses the hantek as a twochannel data acquisition unit. Channel 1 the xaxis will soon display the transistors collector. In conclusion, a bjt transistor curve tracer application is a perfect candidate for writing a custom python control program using the analog discovery sdk. These have enough power to even test power transistors to death. Pen french curve and template ruler set6 pc, stencils, drawing template for all purpose, circle template, french curve ruler, french curve template. With an analog scope, using the curve tracer circuit is straightforward but.
Simple but effective transistor curve tracer circuit. The twochannel, timedependent oscilloscope data was manipulated in software to. A curve tracer is a device which will show the voltage current dependency of an electronic part. The 370b and 371b curve tracers combine a simpletouse front panel, digital acquisition and display, and programmability to serve a.
Bjt transistor iv curve tracer adapter pcb board xy oscilloscopes 4. Project curve tracer progress update raspberry pi projects. Tektronix introduced the industrys first curve tracer in 1955 to display. Transistor curve tracer kit on ebay page 1 eevblog. Robson technologies is the leading supplier of curve tracer test systems ranging from compact models to full enterprise models. Capable to check iv curve both npn pnp power transistor small transistor.
A number of other device parameters can be garnered. Transistor curve tracer adapter oscilloscopes plus power. We need a current limit resistor and a current sense resistor. You can use an arbitrary waveform generator and a digital storage oscilloscope dso to create a transistor curve tracer that you can then use to test and characterize semiconductor devices. However, keysight scopes are also capable of displaying. These are the components needed to build the project.
In this video, were demonstrating how to measure component signatures using a digital storage oscilloscope, signal generator, and a solderless breadboard. A wide variety of curve tracer options are available to you, there are 90 suppliers who sells curve tracer on, mainly located in asia. Hp 41454155 is also nice if you can find it cheaply. This unit came from a working environment, but has not been tested further bmi surplus, inc. How to use an oscilloscope as a curve tracer rs components. Transistor curve tracer 080068 elektor labs elektor. Ct a curve tracer for the shack qst in depth veikko kanto 3355 w.
Before proceeding too far, it should be mentioned that you need to install the oscilloscope driver that comes with the unit. A small rfaf signal tracer from jf10zl web page he has an excellent web page with tons of projects. Usb curve tracer for npn transistors pic microcontroller. With some encouragement from reader petepdx, ive started actually looking into fixing it up. In this post we construct usb base curve tracer to analyze properties of npn transistors. And it doesnt even matter which transistors you use to build it with i build it up on a breadboard first and it works very well. It is therefore suiteable to discover characteristics of electronic parts and to quickly check if they are o. How to use an oscilloscope as a curve tracer engineers typically use oscilloscopes to view plots of voltageversustime. By the way, the curve tracer software only runs on the hantek. The twochannel, timedependent oscilloscope data was manipulated in software to plot the diode voltage drop on the x axis and the device current on the y axis. There was a time when it wasnt so rare to discover an unusual, scopelike object in an electronics lab. The basic idea behind a curve tracer a simple circuit, which input is a sine wave and has some resistor in it.
Two 12bit mcp4921 digitaltoanalog dac converters are used to sweep the base and collector voltages and provide the output characteristics. A homebrew curve tracer with insignificant bom but surprising skills. Channel 1 now becomes the xaxis input, and channel 2 becomes the yaxis input. Curve tracers power device analyzers have wide voltage and current coverage options ranging from 3 kv 20a to 10 kv 1500a and other features that make them capable of. Simple circuit turns scope, function generator into jfet. The gummel plot is the combined plot of the collector and base currents i c and i b of a transistor vs. How to use an oscilloscope and signal generator as a component tester curve tracer. Transistor base current of up to 10ma uses usb for the power supply connects as virtual com port once the firmware and gui catch up wit the hardware in maturity, we will create a curve tracer page in the references to get you up and running quickly. The oscilloscope plot in figure 3 shows a characteristic curve being generated for the same jfet. Using the analog discovery and waveforms as a semiconductor.
The circuit is based on an r8c microcontroller, which transfers the measurement data to a. This is why it is better to use transistor array ics if you need to use. The nice thing about open source, interpreted programs like this are that if users dont like the functionality or the user interface they can modify the program to fit their specific needs. Using the onboard phase shift oscillator to provide the test signal, passive and active parts can be tested. Sweep generator used to test and align crystal filters transistor curve tracer multi viewer for your oscilloscope to put many traces on a single input oscilloscope band monitor scope spectrum analyser kid transistor meter short wave frequency marker.
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