Sam Goldwasser said:
Building a curve tracer to demonstrate the principle of a curve tracer is
easy and quick. Building one that is actually a useful test instrument
is a lot more difficult and time consuming.
Let's have a show of hands.... How many really find a curve tracer to be
a piece of test equipment you use regularly and would dearly miss if you
didn't have one.
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---------------------
SAM,
*MY* hand is up.
I use my Gootee Curve Tracer regularly, and just could not LIVE
without it!
Many others who own this model swear by it, too. Some people who also
have top-of-the-line Huntron models in their labs have said that
they'd put the Gootee Curve Tracer up against the Huntrons, any day.
And the Gootee unit's cost is WAY, way less than the Huntron's. (And,
actually, it does way MORE than a Huntron.)
Okay, hehe. I'm Gootee. But it's all true!
I designed the Gootee Curve Tracer for MYSELF, originally. So it has a
lot of great features that I wanted, but couldn't possibly justify
buying elsewhere.
Anyway, I find that I often use my curve tracer just like I'd use a
"Huntron Tracker" type of unit (i.e. without using the transistor
base/gate staircase output). When I'm troubleshooting a piece of gear,
I can use it to test components in-circuit. And if I have a working
unit that's identical to the one I'm repairing, then it's almost a
no-brainer, since I can just trace through the circuits, comparing the
displayed signatures for the same circuit points in the two units
until I see a difference, to locate a bad part.
I don't test standalone transistors and components as much as I
thought I would, back when I used to cannibalize a lot of consumer
gear for parts, for what was then my "repair" hobby. But it IS great
for that. And the ability to just use switches to select which of the
three transistor voltages and currents to display is very handy, as is
being able to flip their displayed polarities.
Mine also has adjustable + and - tracking power supply outputs, and a
fixed +5v output, on the rear panel. So it's very handy to also use it
as a power source for IC breadboards, etc.
I also occasionally use it as a signal source, since it provides ramp,
triangle, and integrated sine outputs, with a synchronized pulse
output (and a synchronized staircase output). And the main
ramp/triangle/sine output can push at least 1.5 amps and has six
selectable frequencies and a twelve selectable current-limiting
resistances, as well as six selectable peak-to-peak voltages.
If anyone cares to check it out, the Homepage of the Gootee Curve
Tracer is at:
http://www.fullnet.com/u/tomg/gooteect.htm
We sell it in several versions, including "fully assembled and
tested", and in DIY "Kit" form, and also just the "Plans".
I don't want to blow my own horn TOO much more loudly, here (well,
actually, yes I do, hehe), but, I also recently finished two major
re-design projects, for the Curve Tracer.
One re-design was just to improve the power amplifier board, to use a
feedback control loop to control the amp's gain (and thus the output
amplitude), which also eliminated a large number (144!) of switched
resistors and a LOT of wiring, which made it perform even better and
made it MUCH easier to assemble, as well as making each output level
individually adjustable/calibratable (based on a 0.4% precision
voltage reference).
The second re-design was for "manufacturability". I moved the whole
main board from the bottom of the case to a new board that's just
behind (and parallel to) the front panel, allowing all of the rotary
switches, pots, toggle switches, and BNC and banana connectors to be
connected *directly* into the circuit board, eliminating LOTS of
discrete wiring and cutting the assembly time and effort dramatically.
I also made sure that the few remaining board-to-board wires have at
least one end that is connected using a terminal block rather than
solder, so that the individual boards can easily be removed and
re-installed, to improve maintainability and upgradability. [Although,
I should probably mention that there hasn't been a single report of a
failure, or any repair needed, in the five years that I've been
selling them (at least not after a kit was finally completed and
working correctly).]
Sorry to have blathered-on, for so long, about that. I realize it's
like a commercial advertisement. But I FEEL more like a happy customer
who just wants everyone else to know how great this thing is.
------------ OT:
BY THE WAY: If anyone has any ideas about OTHER types of instruments
they'd like to have available, I'm always in the market for those.
CASE IN POINT: Are there any analog circuit designers out there who
might be interested in a "Bode-Plotter", that would display the gain
and phase plots together, on a scope? It seems like it sure would be
nice to have, when (for example) tweaking the open-loop transfer
function for a new opamp circuit. Sure, you could buy a "network
analyzer", for a five-figure price. But would there be any interest in
one with, say, a limited frequency range, that was available as a kit
or assembled, with *MUCH*-lower pricing? I know **I** WANT one. Does
anybody else? (And, if so, are there any particular features or specs
that you would want it to have?)
------------
Regards,
Tom
Tom Gootee
[email protected]
http://www.fullnet.com/u/tomg
Hot suckers too if you grabbed them too fast. As I recall,
