Back in the 80’s and early 90’s these things were hugely popular, especially if you had an identical but functional PCB to compare with. Some techs were wizards with it, easily finding faults with it. As for myself, never got into it, but I can see why some techs were wizards with it, but hey, fault finding is an art, what works for one, does not work for all. Like most youtubers never seem to use an oscilloscope, for me an oscilloscope is the most important tool to use…
I had a Huntron Tracker on my bench at work back in the early 90s, you can actually find the service manual online, but I think the main ICs used in it are obsolete devices now. The basic principle of the Huntron is easy enough to figure out, and has the advantage of switchable frequency and voltage of the sine wave. Richard over at Learn Electronics Repair made a similar IV Curve tester with a relay switching between two probes with a common ground so you can compare two nodes in a circuit. This is great, say in a stereo amplifier if one side is faulty, and the other is working or if you have a known good electronic device to compare to a faulty one. This type of testing can be invaluable IMHO, and can really get you in the ballpark of where a fault lies.
A company that I worked for in the early 1980's had one of these, but I don't ever remember seeing the user manual for it. We tried using it a few times but never found anything significant with it. I always wondered what was inside. There was no Internet in those days so I couldn't easily look this stuff up. Thanks for the informative video.
Late 80s/early 90s I worked at a company repairing PSUs, monitors and other analogue stuff, the 'component tester' in the Hameg 'scopes was absolutely invaluable to us and a really fast way to locate faulty parts, you could swipe through a PC PSU i just a few minutes and isolate faulty parts, leaky caps, open resistors etc, even faster if you had a good or differently faulty unit to compare against, I still have a Hameg 'scope and occasionally use the comp tester even now if something goes faulty.
Curve tracers are most useful to match devices. Sometimes, one needs matched diodes such as in a mixer or matches transistors such as in a high power class AB1 push pull amplifier.
My not-so-old Hameg HM400 scope (after they merged with R&S) still has it. I think that was the last analogue scope R&S produced. Ok, ok, the not-so-old is like 15 years old, lol…
Thanks for the video! I'm still new to building and repairing electronics, so asking this question from ignorance. What was the reason for switching to the 12v on the transformer instead of staying with the 6v center tap and just build your two voltage dividers from that (1v and 3v)? I'm thinking about building this and have a 12v non-ct and wanted to be able to test zener diodes out of circuit that are typically 18v zener. Thanks again!
Handy, but to be honest I dont recall any components actually failing in my designs and needing to be hunted-down with a curve tracer. Usually it's one of my hand-soldered surface-mount components that has a cold joint. In other words, MY fault. Your multimeter has a nice diode-test function and usually will work safely and accurately in-circuit. Yep, it even finds bad solder joints on teeny-tiny SMT transistors.
@@gaberboraey5477 It is a double pole, double throw switch. One pole switches between 6V and 12V, the other pole switches R1b in parallel with R1a when switched to the 12V position.
Pretty much any coax will do for Octopus cables, there's no high frequencies involved. Real 'scope probes are made using magic and pixie dust under a full moon with the correct incantations (OK that's silly but there's a lot of science and effort goes into them and they are probably cheaper and easier to buy than make, especially if you need more than a few tens of MHz capability)
you always make the coolest stuff. it's funny i have an old tds2002c scope that practically identical only 70mhz but it has nicer colored buttons and logo hahaha. weird ehh. all the same features. i get your's is probably a little tiny older but it makes me wonder why mine exists haha. i tend not to use it anymore because it was a gift from friend and i'm known to be clumsy. also mine only came with 1x probes haha. keep up the great work. i have no idea why your sub numbers are not way high to the point of monetization.
Thanks ☺️ I have a bunch of scopes, and I like to hook them up for a video so they’re not just sitting on a shelf. The TDS2000 series was the next step up and are nice little scopes. I picked up the 1012B for under $100, so it was a nice little addition to the collection.
Back in the 80’s and early 90’s these things were hugely popular, especially if you had an identical but functional PCB to compare with. Some techs were wizards with it, easily finding faults with it. As for myself, never got into it, but I can see why some techs were wizards with it, but hey, fault finding is an art, what works for one, does not work for all. Like most youtubers never seem to use an oscilloscope, for me an oscilloscope is the most important tool to use…
I had a Huntron Tracker on my bench at work back in the early 90s, you can actually find the service manual online, but I think the main ICs used in it are obsolete devices now.
The basic principle of the Huntron is easy enough to figure out, and has the advantage of switchable frequency and voltage of the sine wave.
Richard over at Learn Electronics Repair made a similar IV Curve tester with a relay switching between two probes with a common ground so you can compare two nodes in a circuit. This is great, say in a stereo amplifier if one side is faulty, and the other is working or if you have a known good electronic device to compare to a faulty one.
This type of testing can be invaluable IMHO, and can really get you in the ballpark of where a fault lies.
A company that I worked for in the early 1980's had one of these, but I don't ever remember seeing the user manual for it. We tried using it a few times but never found anything significant with it. I always wondered what was inside. There was no Internet in those days so I couldn't easily look this stuff up. Thanks for the informative video.
Late 80s/early 90s I worked at a company repairing PSUs, monitors and other analogue stuff, the 'component tester' in the Hameg 'scopes was absolutely invaluable to us and a really fast way to locate faulty parts, you could swipe through a PC PSU i just a few minutes and isolate faulty parts, leaky caps, open resistors etc, even faster if you had a good or differently faulty unit to compare against, I still have a Hameg 'scope and occasionally use the comp tester even now if something goes faulty.
Curve tracers are most useful to match devices. Sometimes, one needs matched diodes such as in a mixer or matches transistors such as in a high power class AB1 push pull amplifier.
Very simple and effective. A similar curve tracer was used in old Hameg scopes, for example HM205.
Hameg 307 is on my wishlist for that very reason.
My not-so-old Hameg HM400 scope (after they merged with R&S) still has it. I think that was the last analogue scope R&S produced. Ok, ok, the not-so-old is like 15 years old, lol…
Thank you for showing how it's done.
Will it show a leaky diode on the low range ?
Thanks for the video! I'm still new to building and repairing electronics, so asking this question from ignorance. What was the reason for switching to the 12v on the transformer instead of staying with the 6v center tap and just build your two voltage dividers from that (1v and 3v)? I'm thinking about building this and have a 12v non-ct and wanted to be able to test zener diodes out of circuit that are typically 18v zener. Thanks again!
Handy, but to be honest I dont recall any components actually failing in my designs and needing to be hunted-down with a curve tracer. Usually it's one of my hand-soldered surface-mount components that has a cold joint. In other words, MY fault.
Your multimeter has a nice diode-test function and usually will work safely and accurately in-circuit. Yep, it even finds bad solder joints on teeny-tiny SMT transistors.
Love the content, presentation and the nails are great too!
In the schematic I see 2 switch for range A and range B while in the real prototype I see only one switch, is it one switch or two used?
One DPDT switch. The dotted line shows the two poles ganged together.
So R1a and R1b are connected together?, and only the switch between the 6v and 12v?
@@gaberboraey5477 It is a double pole, double throw switch. One pole switches between 6V and 12V, the other pole switches R1b in parallel with R1a when switched to the 12V position.
HI, what kind of cable do you use to make the osciloscope probes?. Seems wifi antena cable
Pretty much any coax will do for Octopus cables, there's no high frequencies involved.
Real 'scope probes are made using magic and pixie dust under a full moon with the correct incantations (OK that's silly but there's a lot of science and effort goes into them and they are probably cheaper and easier to buy than make, especially if you need more than a few tens of MHz capability)
@@antonioandres25 I bought the cables on EBay. They are just thin coax cables with BNC connectors.
@GaryLaRocco Thanks
GARY, Any reasons why the 1v/1mA and the 3.5v/3.5mA outputs DON"T turn on transistors measuring components in-circuit?
17:10 shows testing the transistor. I could have chosen an easier board to poke around on. 😕
you always make the coolest stuff.
it's funny i have an old tds2002c scope that practically identical only 70mhz but it has nicer colored buttons and logo hahaha. weird ehh. all the same features. i get your's is probably a little tiny older but it makes me wonder why mine exists haha. i tend not to use it anymore because it was a gift from friend and i'm known to be clumsy. also mine only came with 1x probes haha.
keep up the great work. i have no idea why your sub numbers are not way high to the point of monetization.
Thanks ☺️ I have a bunch of scopes, and I like to hook them up for a video so they’re not just sitting on a shelf. The TDS2000 series was the next step up and are nice little scopes. I picked up the 1012B for under $100, so it was a nice little addition to the collection.
Why do you paint your fingernails? It put me off, Can't Watch. Too bad for both of us, I wanted to hear your presentation.
Oh well... 🙄
@@GaryLaRocco Maybe a french manicure would be a good start for those faint at heart
@@GaryLaRocco LMAO. Love that he assumes anyone cares whether or not he'd stay and watch. Don't let the door hit ya!
@@GaryLaRocco I think they look lovely! Much neater than I usually do!