Are you a Tek lover ? Are you German ? Do you have germoney ? Then the answer is this:
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/kennlinienschreiber-tektronix/2111929863-168-13379
You forgot a few questions: Do you have too much space and a concrete floor? Do you ignore the fact that modern devices that cost a fraction of this can give you much better measurements and the results can be stored?
McBryce.
Is there any one in particular you can recommend to buy or build?
I don't think any of the modern ones will offer you the voltages that the Tek can achieve, but for jellybean type devices, the Peak Atlas DCA 75 Pro produces good results when connected to a PC.
McBryce.
Even for jellybean stuff it's no good. It does only very low currents and very low voltages. So it's limited to small signals jellybean... and even then, a humble 2N2222 can do 800mA, can this tester even achieve that ? I haven't looked but it feels unlikely... would drain the batteries at the speed of light. Maybe you can hook an external power supply to it ? But then that's more cost, and more wiring and mess on the bench...and what about all the many beefier packages, TO220 and TO3 that can handle hundreds of volts and 10 or 20 amps ? How do you test these ?
Also the Tek is a stand alone device, less messy and more practical. It's to the point.
I would love to have a modern Tek curve tracer equivalent for cheap, but I am not sure it can even exist. A decent quality cabinet and all the controls required, that costs money. A beefy linear power supply that can supply "clean" high voltages and high currents costs money. Decent quality materials and build quality costs money too. A good comprehensive service manual to "protect your investment" in the long term by helping you keeping it running, is valuable to.
I guess the only part that could be cheap in a modern version of a Tek, would be of course a large colour LCD panel to display the traces, and some CPU to process the data and show you useful stuff on the screen. Like measure hFE, slopes, turn-on voltages, XYZ, printed on screen, store curves, print, whatever a modern instrument could do easily/cheaply in S/W. That would be nice. But 90% of the stuff, mentioned in previous paragraph, I just don't see how it can be made dirt cheap.
I think there is a reason why these old Tek curve tracers are so sought after. Of course you pay for the nostalgia and speculation sadly, but the instrument also does have inherent merits / qualities, which are still valuable and relevant today IMO.
Yes, I should be outside gardening, but I gave up, too hot / sunny. I am staying inside, sorting my transistors instead.. will go gardening later in the evening when the sun will be going down.