Hi there probably loads of treads about this but hey help needed
Got a coulple of questions about the curve tracer.
Is it any good?
Is it avvaliable ?
Have you built it ?
What the snags ?
Many tanks
Got a coulple of questions about the curve tracer.
Is it any good?
Is it avvaliable ?
Have you built it ?
What the snags ?
Many tanks
I’m building it.
The snags:
1) It seems Elektor is sponsored by Conrad; only there you can find and order the PCB mounted transformer with the matching footprint. Of course they could have made some variable PCB layout to account for different brands, but nooooooo…… 😡
2) Some VERY odd resistor values (931 kOhm to call one), not available at Conrad while you are there… Only available from the big ones (Mouser, Digikey, etc) if you want quality parts from the same brand (I wanted Vishay Dale for example).
3) Some pretty obsolete IC’s (2x DG441DJ), not available with any parts shops; had to order from US ebayer. 😕
4) Some 1 watt resistors are having a PCB pitch of… ¼ watters, while the PCB has plenty of space to stretch the pitch for these resistors to 15mm or more. Seems the design/article was rushed to the press without fine tuning. I ended up in bending the leads in an omega shape to get these 1 watters in place. 🙁
So, in the end I ended up to order from 4 different parties (PCB, transformer + heatsinks, ICs, others parts) loosing over 60 Euros in shipping costs.
Total costs, including casing, terminals, IEC filter, etc: way over 250 Euro….
So, if anybody from Elektor reads this: CAN YOU FOLKS PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT WE NORMAL FOLKS LIKE TO MAKE ONE SINGLE PARTS ORDER, and, TO USE NORMAL/AVAILABLE COMPONENT VALUES AND DIMENSIONS ?? Thank you !!
Not a snag, but a reminder: the testing current and voltage are pretty limited. So if you want to obtain realistic trannie curves under load, then you better build locky_z’s curve tracer found in the solid state forum (I’m building it as well).
The elector tracer could however be a nice device for testing and matching small signal BJTs and FETs.
Here some construction pics; it’s almost ready to be fired up.
The snags:
1) It seems Elektor is sponsored by Conrad; only there you can find and order the PCB mounted transformer with the matching footprint. Of course they could have made some variable PCB layout to account for different brands, but nooooooo…… 😡
2) Some VERY odd resistor values (931 kOhm to call one), not available at Conrad while you are there… Only available from the big ones (Mouser, Digikey, etc) if you want quality parts from the same brand (I wanted Vishay Dale for example).
3) Some pretty obsolete IC’s (2x DG441DJ), not available with any parts shops; had to order from US ebayer. 😕
4) Some 1 watt resistors are having a PCB pitch of… ¼ watters, while the PCB has plenty of space to stretch the pitch for these resistors to 15mm or more. Seems the design/article was rushed to the press without fine tuning. I ended up in bending the leads in an omega shape to get these 1 watters in place. 🙁
So, in the end I ended up to order from 4 different parties (PCB, transformer + heatsinks, ICs, others parts) loosing over 60 Euros in shipping costs.
Total costs, including casing, terminals, IEC filter, etc: way over 250 Euro….
So, if anybody from Elektor reads this: CAN YOU FOLKS PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT WE NORMAL FOLKS LIKE TO MAKE ONE SINGLE PARTS ORDER, and, TO USE NORMAL/AVAILABLE COMPONENT VALUES AND DIMENSIONS ?? Thank you !!
Not a snag, but a reminder: the testing current and voltage are pretty limited. So if you want to obtain realistic trannie curves under load, then you better build locky_z’s curve tracer found in the solid state forum (I’m building it as well).
The elector tracer could however be a nice device for testing and matching small signal BJTs and FETs.
Here some construction pics; it’s almost ready to be fired up.
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