06-08-2011, 04:10 PM
Hi,
It seems ages ago that David very kindly gave me one of his excellent populated ESR boards. As David had already done most of the work I thought it would be an easy matter to make a wooden box and connect everything up.
How wrong I was; I made the wooden box very easily using the home made router comb jointing jig which David also kindly supplied the plans for. Then it all went downhill; I'm no whiz kid at electronics and every time I sat at the bench to work on this I got called away for something or other; I ended up zapping components making this into a much bigger job.
The harder I tried the worse it all became so last night armed with a lot more information David had sent me I decided once and for all to either get it working or destroy it because frustration had set in. I asked Bron to tell anyone wanting me to say I was on another planet.
I had bought a supply of 5V regulators; chips and transistors. I had already replaced the regulator so knew the supply was OK. Ten minutes into the job the instrument was working. Like a fool I had managed to install the transistor the wrong way around; a new transistor installed correctly fired the meter up much to my relief.
Whilst sitting in the waiting room at the hospital I was reading "Fault- finding Electronic Projects" by R.A.Penfold and read the article on making an SCR (Thyristor) tester. This appeared simple enough so I've taken the liberty of adding it to this ESR making it two instruments in the same box. All it needs now is the crocodile clips adding then it is completed.
I added a plug and socket (Jack) so that I could power from a battery as shown or use one of my power supplies.
I can't thank David enough for his generosity and I know I'm not the only one to benefit greatly by knowing David; genuine friends like David are very rare to find these days. Thank you David for all your help; I hope I can respond in kind.
Kind regards, Col.
[attachment=2753]
It seems ages ago that David very kindly gave me one of his excellent populated ESR boards. As David had already done most of the work I thought it would be an easy matter to make a wooden box and connect everything up.
How wrong I was; I made the wooden box very easily using the home made router comb jointing jig which David also kindly supplied the plans for. Then it all went downhill; I'm no whiz kid at electronics and every time I sat at the bench to work on this I got called away for something or other; I ended up zapping components making this into a much bigger job.
The harder I tried the worse it all became so last night armed with a lot more information David had sent me I decided once and for all to either get it working or destroy it because frustration had set in. I asked Bron to tell anyone wanting me to say I was on another planet.
I had bought a supply of 5V regulators; chips and transistors. I had already replaced the regulator so knew the supply was OK. Ten minutes into the job the instrument was working. Like a fool I had managed to install the transistor the wrong way around; a new transistor installed correctly fired the meter up much to my relief.
Whilst sitting in the waiting room at the hospital I was reading "Fault- finding Electronic Projects" by R.A.Penfold and read the article on making an SCR (Thyristor) tester. This appeared simple enough so I've taken the liberty of adding it to this ESR making it two instruments in the same box. All it needs now is the crocodile clips adding then it is completed.
I added a plug and socket (Jack) so that I could power from a battery as shown or use one of my power supplies.
I can't thank David enough for his generosity and I know I'm not the only one to benefit greatly by knowing David; genuine friends like David are very rare to find these days. Thank you David for all your help; I hope I can respond in kind.
Kind regards, Col.
[attachment=2753]
