good transistor tester in the <300$ range

[coppercone2]

What is a good transistor tester in the <300$ range?

Is there something nice like a DE-5000 quality device available?

Mainly for repair testing for rarer transistors

[Doctorandus_P]

Instead of "transistor tester", search for "transistor curve tracer". There are a bunch of DIY methods out there, One of the simplest is use of a dual channel function generator and an oscilloscope. The siggen tenerates a stepped sawtooth and a triangle for each step of the first signal.

But maybe you should start with defining better what parameters of the transistors (and for what types of transistors) you want to test. You can test quite a lot with a power supply, a breadboard, two DMM's and a few passives.

On the top of the line you would have two SMU's, but that's not going to work out for your budget. And even with those you're still limited to pretty low frequency measurements. When you build the classical transistor amplifier with 4 resistors, you can test amplification on every frequency the rest of your equipment can manage.

[watchmaker]

What is a good transistor tester in the <300$ range?

Is there something nice like a DE-5000 quality device available?

Mainly for repair testing for rarer transistors

For ready to go with lots of documentation, not sure the Heathkit Curve Tracer can be beat for that price. $300 should buy one immediately, but if you wait you can get them for under $150 shipped in US.  Virtually all the test parameters are adjustable.

I did successfully(after much aggravation)  build the ThaiKit, but final cost was about $125 and it only supplies up to 15 v.  No good for power transistors.  But curves match my HK.  I even put a USB scope on the box and I do keep it on the bench for quick checks.

[Phil1977]

You should have a look at the "Peak Atlas" devices: https://www.peakelec.co.uk/acatalog/dca55-atlas-dca-semiconductor-analyser.html

They´re still very affordable, but provide quite a lot of detail information about the tested transistors. It´s hard to not compare them to the ubiquitous Atmel-testers, but if you compare they deliver much more detail information and some even are capable of basic curve tracing - together with a computer.

[iet]

Mainly for repair testing for rarer transistors

Give an example of such transistors.

[coppercone2]

idk man like germanium and obsolete stuff? There is always something that comes up and it costs like $30 to buy a new one. I dont' remember my last project but with the 6177 current source it was starting to drive me crazy

 like a HP part # without a N equivalent



The Atlas looks interesting. Yeah I was thinking about a battery powered portable unit. The heathkit is a beast. That looks like what you need to really match some transistors. I just wanna detect if something is reallllly bad, because I had circuits so funky I figured every single part must be bad (the measured values were just totally bogus).