Huntron Tracker 2800

[joeqsmith]

New addition to the lab shown with the home made source meter.  I need to track down the software and manuals for it.   I ran a basic checkout and it appears fully functional.

[Kosmic]

Nice find  Brand new, they are still quite expensive.

I never used one myself, but was always curious about the Huntron tracker. How it could be used to troubleshoot circuits.

[2N3055]

That was nice catch, congrats!

.. home made source-meter ... ?? 
Would you care to divulge more details..?
Thanks,

Sinisa

[joeqsmith]

Nice find  Brand new, they are still quite expensive.

I never used one myself, but was always curious about the Huntron tracker. How it could be used to troubleshoot circuits.

I've read about them over the years but am ignorant about them myself.  I never understood their benefits.  Comparing to a known good board, I assume we are talking about production.  In my home lab, having two of anything would be rare.     Looking at curves versus values, I assume that the idea is that we can have less skilled techs trying to troubleshoot boards.  Moving the two probes around the two boards by hand seems like it would be a pain in the butt.  If you need the DC or have to move the reference, it would seem like a nightmare.  For higher volumes, I would just run them over in-circuit.   Then you are looking at curves rather than meaningful values.   I've had to troubleshoot a fair number of boards over the years using basic test equipment, JTAG, custom jigs but have never considered the Huntron bringing anything to the table. 

Maybe once I find the manuals and software, I can spend some time with it and put together some sort of demo.  Who knows, maybe I've been missing out all these years. 
 

Source meter:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/playing-with-delta-sigma-converter-poor-mans-meter/

[2N3055]

Nice find  Brand new, they are still quite expensive.

I never used one myself, but was always curious about the Huntron tracker. How it could be used to troubleshoot circuits.

I've read about them over the years but am ignorant about them myself.  I never understood their benefits.  Comparing to a known good board, I assume we are talking about production.  In my home lab, having two of anything would be rare.     Looking at curves versus values, I assume that the idea is that we can have less skilled techs trying to troubleshoot boards.  Moving the two probes around the two boards by hand seems like it would be a pain in the butt.  If you need the DC or have to move the reference, it would seem like a nightmare.  For higher volumes, I would just run them over in-circuit.   Then you are looking at curves rather than meaningful values.   I've had to troubleshoot a fair number of boards over the years using basic test equipment, JTAG, custom jigs but have never considered the Huntron bringing anything to the table. 

Maybe once I find the manuals and software, I can spend some time with it and put together some sort of demo.  Who knows, maybe I've been missing out all these years. 
 

Source meter:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/playing-with-delta-sigma-converter-poor-mans-meter/

You are pretty much right. If you have good board, you compare. If not, it can show some complex behaviour. Definitely not something you cannot live without. Some people swear by component testers. If you have good board to compare, I would rather use scope... But in the world of component testers, that is the top device. Maybe you're going to like it.

As for source-meter, I know about your homemade A/D project, I didn't know about source part... You didn't elaborate much on that..

Thanks and regards,

Sinisa

[tautech]

Joe, our member with the best knowledge of these is Fraser. Drop Huntron Tracker into a search with Fraser as the member in the advanced tab and you should get some more info on them.

[joeqsmith]

Came up with 15 hits was all.  Using just Huntron, 18 returns.  This post in particular had a few papers but outside of that, I didn't find much.  Maybe they will chime in with their own experiences.  I've never talked with anyone who has used one. 

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/dirt-cheap-and-simple-scope-based-component-tester-curve-tracer/msg119503/#msg119503

[markce]

Seen the Huntron support pages?

[joeqsmith]

Yes, I went to their site first.  I was hoping to be able to DL the manuals and software.  I did go through their getting started manual.  They had a few videos but it seems more just marketing hype.   

It would be interesting to see a video of a tech who is VERY familiar with it, troubleshoot a few different problems.  Not something staged, no hype, just a master at work with their tool of choice.   I'm not finding anything like that out there.   

[joeqsmith]

Different instrument and not in English (Bosnian) but interesting to watch him work.  No idea if he actually found the problem. 


Another similar type instrument with the alternate mode.  We can watch him manipulate the two probes, having to constantly change settings and then it's back to measure.   It's hard for me to believe people work like this. 


"Looks like we found our problem... hopefully."


Huntron's video on the 2800 comparing the new ranges with some of their older instruments.


Compared with the optical, component tests, in-circuit.... this seems really slow.   Imagine not having the stage and software with the pass/fail criteria and moving that probe by hand... two probes by hand.   


Boring overview

[joeqsmith]

I now have the software and manuals. 

Skimming the manuals it seems the software would have made it a lot more useful.   It looks like an engineer would have setup the software to guide the tech through the troubleshooting.  It looks like it can store the data from a known working board, so there would have been no need for the tech to manipulate the two probes.  This is where their stage comes in.  Still, if we are talking production, we have had in-circuit for many many years.  $4000 would have bought a decent scope, meter, power supply and soldering iron.     

I'll see about breadboarding a few identical circuits and give this thing a test drive.