Multi-function Tester - TC1 ❓ [found/sold]

[andregarcia57]

Hello, how are you? I'm looking to buy a Multi-function Tester - TC1 it looks very good, I want to know about germanium transistor leakage, is its accuracy good in this regard?

Note: I don't have the money to buy peak atlas.

I appreciate if anyone has bought it and leave your experience.

[cspar]

Somewhere, I think on the "other site", there is a thread that compares a few units including the TC1 and it performs accurately in those tests against more expensive units.

That said, I have two of them on my bench that I use regularly and they work well for me.

Because of the variable nature of germanium I personally never write down readings for specific transistors.

If you measure them later in the day they'll measure slightly different because of a difference in ambient temperature and all the things people talk of concerning germanium fluctuation.

You just need to know the reasonable ballpark figure.

I sort them on the TC1 by both the hfe range in decades and if they are high or low leakage.

So if I want a leaky one in the 70's I know what bag to look in etc.

I am always checking capacitors esr and if they have V loss with my TC1.

It's probably the most used piece of test equipment on my bench and definitely one of the cheapest.

I highly recommend one.

[Yazoo55]

Yes, definitely worth having. Invaluable for checking transistor pinouts.

[plush]

Nope, this one does not show real leakage of Ge transistors.

If you can't affort PEAK Atlas, then you'd better invest your money into decent DMM with quality leads and build yourself a test stand to measure GE leakage.

[cspar]

Plush is absolutely correct about diffinitive accuracy. The TC1 does have relative accuracy that is good enough for leakage sorting IMHO though.

I can't find the peticular thread that I was referring to but there's one somewhere which compares a few different testers with graphs and the whole nine yards.

In that thread the review of the TC1 is more positive than the one I'm linking although the linked one isn't negative or anything.

This thread mentions using a TC1 for rough sorting like I do.

https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/ ... msg1207014

This method gives you a relative accuracy for high or low leakage sorting and hfe within a reasonable tolerance to sort by decade.

Yup, "relative" and "reasonable".

Readings for germanium are like grabbing soap and identical matches are hard to come by.

Personally I don't sort germanium transistors by part # at all. Just readings on the TC1. It was a combination of the Electrosmash fuzzes and Smallbear's Fur's Rite page that opened my eyes to doing it this way.

I've only made 8 germanium fuzzes and all of them with internal bias pots something akin to the way it's done on the electrosmash site's fuzzes. All of them by this sorting method. This method works well for me.

It seems that the majority of times people have problems building germanium fuzzes they are trying to bias the circuit with the transistor instead of biasing the transistor with the circuit.

Thus, if your goal is to build a replica circuit with a specific transistor and set resistor instead of an internal bias pot this might not be the method for you.

If you've got a random assortment of transistors and put sockets on your builds then you'll get milage with the TC1 rough sort like I have.

Hands down an Atlas is better but the TC1 is pretty handy and a quality DMM on your bench is more necessary than either of them.

[andregarcia57]

Plush is absolutely correct about diffinitive accuracy. The TC1 does have relative accuracy that is good enough for leakage sorting IMHO though.

I can't find the peticular thread that I was referring to but there's one somewhere which compares a few different testers with graphs and the whole nine yards.

In that thread the review of the TC1 is more positive than the one I'm linking although the linked one isn't negative or anything.

This thread mentions using a TC1 for rough sorting like I do.

https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/ ... msg1207014

This method gives you a relative accuracy for high or low leakage sorting and hfe within a reasonable tolerance to sort by decade.

Yup, "relative" and "reasonable".

Readings for germanium are like grabbing soap and identical matches are hard to come by.

Personally I don't sort germanium transistors by part # at all. Just readings on the TC1. It was a combination of the Electrosmash fuzzes and Smallbear's Fur's Rite page that opened my eyes to doing it this way.

I've only made 8 germanium fuzzes and all of them with internal bias pots something akin to the way it's done on the electrosmash site's fuzzes. All of them by this sorting method. This method works well for me.

It seems that the majority of times people have problems building germanium fuzzes they are trying to bias the circuit with the transistor instead of biasing the transistor with the circuit.

Thus, if your goal is to build a replica circuit with a specific transistor and set resistor instead of an internal bias pot this might not be the method for you.

If you've got a random assortment of transistors and put sockets on your builds then you'll get milage with the TC1 rough sort like I have.

Hands down an Atlas is better but the TC1 is pretty handy and a quality DMM on your bench is more necessary than either of them.

you said well.
"TC1 is quite useful and a quality DMM on your bench is needed more than any of them."

let's suppose I have 100 transistors to classify, TC1 for sure before the first job, then to finish I can use other methods like RG to refine the classification.
thanks

[mozz]

Pretty sure my MK328 gives me close to the same readings as my Peak Atlas. That includes the proper germanium leakage reading.