The $10 Component Tester

Earlier in the year one of the ham club members turned up with a component tester he had discovered on the internet and built up.

The device measures essentially any component you connect on it and tells you what you have. From a simple resistor to a capacitor, diode or even a transistor. the specs are below

So a quick google found many sources, and the one that seemed best recommended was from BangGood. The item I purchased was around $10 back before the dollar took its dive. Its around $14 today.

DIY Meter Tester Kit For Capacitance ESR Inductance Resistor NPN PNP Mosfet M168
Feature:
A key measurement operation , auto power off delay . Shutdown current is only 20nA, support battery operation.
Automatic detection PNP and NPN type bipolar transistors , N, P -channel MOSFET, JFET FET , diodes , two diodes, thyristors 
, resistors , capacitors , inductors. Automatic detection pin definitions.
Measurement of the bipolar transistor current amplification factor (B) and conduction voltage emitter junction (Uf). 
Darlington transistor may be identified by the amplification factor of the high threshold voltage and high current.
Can be detected inside the bipolar transistor and MOSFET protection diodes and displayed on the screen.
The threshold voltage and the MOSFET gate capacitance measurement.
Support two measuring resistors , the potential can also be measured . If the potentiometer is adjusted to its end , 
the tester can not distinguish the two ends of the pin and the middle.
Resistance measurement resolution is 0.1Ohm , the highest measurement value of 50MOhm.
Capacitance measurement range from 25pf to 100mF (10UF). Resolution up to 1PF.
Can detect more than 2UF capacitor equivalent series resistance (ESR), with a resolution of 0.01Ohm. This feature is 
very important for the detection capacitor performance.
You can display symbols of the two diodes in the right direction , also shows the forward voltage drop.
LED detection of diode forward voltage drop higher than normal . Dual LED detected as double diodes. Simultaneous detection
of light-emitting diodes will flash.
Each test time is about two seconds , only large capacitance and inductance measurements will take a long time.

Specification:
Measurement Range:
Resistor: 0.5Ω ~ 50MΩ
Capacitor: 30pF ~ 100mF
Inductance: 0.01MH ~ 10H
Working voltage: can use 6FF22 9V Battery, or DC 5.5V ~ 12V via DC socket
Controller: ATmega328 (has been programmed)
Standby current: 0.02uA
Operating current: 25mA

The kit has sat on the shelf for months, i just hadn’t had the time to sit down and solder it up. However the other night I had some time and decided to have a go, and to my surprise, the thing worked!

IMG_4044 IMG_4051 IMG_4055 IMG_4056 IMG_4060 IMG_4061 IMG_4068 IMG_4143

The instructions are wonderful, even if you don’t plan to build one, have a read of the instructions 🙂 lost in translation at its finest!

I should chuck it in a box at some point in the near future, but otherwise, it works 😀

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