In Circuit Transistor Tester

This simple circuit has helped me out on many occasions. It is able to check transistors, in the circuit, down to 40 ohms across the collector-base or base-emitter junctions. It can also check the output power transistors on amplifier circuits. Circuit operation is as follows. The 555 timer ( IC1 ) is set up as a 12hz multivibrator. The output on pin 3 drives the 4027 flip-flop ( IC2). This flip-flop divides the input frequency by two and delivers complementary voltage outputs to pin 15 and 14. The outputs are connected to LED1 and LED2 through the current limiting resistor R3.

Circuit Diagram

The LEDs are arranged so that when the polarity across the circuit is one way only one LED will light and when the polarity reverses the other LED will light, therefore when no transistor is connected to the tester the LEDs will alternately flash. The IC2 outputs are also connected to resistors R4 and R5 with the junction of these two resistors connected to the base of the transistor being tested.

With a good transistor connected to the tester, the transistor will turn on and produce a short across the LED pair. If a good NPN transistor is connected then LED1 will flash by itself and if a good PNP transistor is connected then LED2 will flash by itself. If the transistor is open both LEDs will flash and if the transistor is shorted then neither LED will flash.

[Continue reading...]

LED FLASHER WITH ONE TRANSISTOR

This is a unique flasher circuit employing a single driver transistor that takes its flash-rate from a flashing LED. The flasher within the photo is 3mm. An ordinary LED wont work. The flash rate can not be altered by the brightness of the high-bright white LED will be adjusted by altering the 1k resistor across the 100u electrolytic to 4k7 or 10k. The 1k resistor discharges the 100u in order that when the transistor activates, the charging current into the 100u illuminates the white

LED.
If a 10k discharge resistor is used, the 100u isnt absolutely discharged and therefore the LED doesnt flash as bright. All the components within the photo are within the same places as within the circuit diagram to make it simple to envision how the components are connected.

The circuit uses a flashing LED to flash a super-bright 20,000mcd white LED

[Continue reading...]